


Cursed and Infinite

by AikoIsari



Series: From Stardust [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Fan Games
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Coming of Age, Death, Friendship, Gen, Hard-of-Hearing Character, Loss of Parent(s), Magic, Non-Graphic Violence, Past Child Abuse, Psychological Trauma, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2018-11-03 22:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10976184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AikoIsari/pseuds/AikoIsari
Summary: Ayame has always wanted some kind of adventure, and Aevium seems like a good place to start. Then her mother gets kidnapped. Her Eevee also is displaying some strange issues. Finally she's being stalked by a telepathic grumpy pony. Can she change her mind yet?





	1. Pieces of Myself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Implied past harm to a child, hard-of-hearing character.
> 
> REVISED 1-28-18 for continuity reasons

_Oh child of the mystics, doll of the ancients, are you here for glory or freedom?_

Fingers traced the words on a silver bracelet as the computer finished booting up. Its owner made a face, but that was all, letting it dangle uselessly on their wrist once more.

"Hello and welcome! Judging on that GPS thingamabob at my right, you're close by aren't you? You're so close to Aevium you can taste it! Aevium here has a real challenge waiting, with eightee-"

Ayame groaned and pressed mute on the computer, letting the captioned text go by on the screen. She made another note in her identification documents, lest she ended up getting bogged up in hours of customs for not being precise. Aevium, a mysteriously fragmented region with a difficulty spike worthy of that demolished Reborn City to the south. For new trainers, it was usually a death sentence, or at the very least a recipe for going broke. Ayame looked at her freshly worn clothes and the nicks on her music player and sighed out loud. She was halfway there already.

Next, to her, someone glared and made a disapproving noise. Ayame raised a pink eyebrow and they turned away, leaving her staring at clean, creamy white walls and pokeball shaped computer monitors. She smiled a bit at that and went back to her screen, scribbling notes of badge requirements. All regions that had an official league (or the trial system in the case of Alola and some  _other_ region west of Sinnoh and that one sunken frontier place) had a material in trainer IDs that made sound-based waves come from pokeballs so that the captured pokemon would listen depending on their rank and license type. Or so some idiot with a peak pushed gyarados didn't try using it at the first trainer battle and get eaten for their efforts. Or something. Her teacher had considered it rewriting pack rules or something similar. The Kimono Girls were a little old-fashioned, according to her mother.

"Hey, are you listening?" The words flew up on the screen in all capital letters, followed by the time delay of the scout's irritated face.

Ayame winced and turned the volume back on. "Yeah, I am. Sorry, Miss Amanda."

On the other side of the screen, the young woman let out a grunt of approval, brushing her black jacket free of non-existent crumbs. "You'd better be. You're going to the big leagues. Tohjo's got nothing on this place anymore. At least in terms of competitive play. I still don't know what they feed you poor kids."

Ayame made a face and decided to ignore the potential disagreement. "You really don't have to do this, ma'am. Just because my mother asked you to-"

The woman waved a hand at the screen, black waves dancing about her fingers. "Come on beanie, none of that. We're getting your mum's advertising. Besides, we make these calls to everybody. You just got me 'cause I asked. Now, come on, let's finish this before either of us go grey, mmkay?"

Ayame grunted agreement, toying with her pink hair. She rubbed the dark smudges under her eyes and nodded jerkily. "Okay, what do you need from me?"

On the other side of the video call, Amanda's eyes took on a slightly glazed over look as she glanced at a different window. "Okay, I've got your transfer documents, but you know, the extras are necessary. Hometown and region?"

"Ecruteak, Western Tohjo." There was a slight inhale that Ayame made herself ignore as the information continued on.

"Hair, skin, date of last physical sets with any notable comments?"

"Pink, olive or dark, and June seventeenth, with freshly healed arm break from tree fall, vision unchanged. Emergency inhaler unneeded," Ayame paused to breathe a little harder than usual just to be sure. She kept her voice as disinterested as she possibly could. "Wrist has been removed from splint, the doctor has declared me healthy enough for travel."  _Physically, at any rate._

There was a pause like Amanda was containing a snort. Then she continued. "License type, parent and emergency contact information?"

"League excursion permitted by the Kimono Girls Theater, three-year visa with an open extension request at any pokemon center or League sanctioned building." She proceeded to rattle off her mother's contact number, then the rest of them, toying with her white hat in her lap. It looked cute enough, sure, but anything that complimented her hair-

_"Why are you so weird?"_

Never lasted long.

She looked back at Amanda, who grinned. "Are we done?"

"Done as a tauros steak." Amanda made to close the window. "We'll be notified when the Oceania docks at port. Get your card from the clerk once we're off the phone and head on out. I'll meet you at the Gearen Lab when you get there. Ignore the strangers, keep that knife I know you're  _totally not_  smuggling in in your boot and don't look ready to be cowed."

Ayame made a face, cheeks puffing out. "Wasn't supposed to get caught."

"Your mum's a celebrity." Amanda winked. "Anyway, I've got about three more clients to run through the entire speech with since people don't put their paperwork in right. Catch you later. Remind your mum she's got a seven-o-clock dinner with us."

When the screen turned black, Ayame happily pulled the black earbuds free from the computer and hopped from the stool. She didn't even get to stretch before some ten-year-old took her place. For a moment, Ayame blinked dumbly. Then she shook her head. She had no right to complain about some kid jumping into a death trap. She was twelve.

At least she understood the death trap was what it was. She hoped.

With a small grin, she returned her earbud jack to the pocket of her dress and back into its receiver. The world began to murmur instead of be a whisper in her ears, and she sounded out each noise under her breath as she walked to the table and requested politely with her hands. Or what she hoped was polite anyway. At the puzzled face, she cleared her throat and said, "Sorry, I'd like to get my trainer card please."

The woman smiled as fast as possible. "Oh! Sorry. We're not trained in Tohjan Sign on this ship. Only Kalosian and Unovan. The Tohjan course isn't until next season."

Ayame nodded. "'S okay. It's not common knowledge." Which it wasn't. Kanto, holding the Elites and Champions that started the League system in this regional collective (Was it a collective? She had no idea.), was kind of awkward about sending out-of-region resources. By awkward, she meant bad. Kalos was only better by virtue of people being obsessed with the internet and memory-making, the oversharing weirdoes. She rubbed her wrist to avoid looking at the woman again and seeing something like pity.

The woman sighed, blue hair dancing messily out of her face. "No, trust me, we have so many people coming on and off to register and people have no idea. Aevium is not the most health-positive-"

"Please." Ayame smiled like her mother did to reporters. She had seen it a lot over the past year. "No need to do all of that bowing or anything. I've got workarounds." Which she did. And listening to people's activism speeches got old on good days. This was a mediocre day.

The woman giggled. "Right, sorry. Didn't mean to push… hang on." She reached into the printer where the plastic card slid out of its slot. "All right, get this verified when we get to Gearen, and you'll be all set. Also, a general word of advice, don't eat out in East Gearen unless someone else pays." At the raised eyebrow, the woman's grin widened. "Just trust me, you're safer off."

Ayame smiled back and saluted with two fingers. "Got you. Thanks."

She was all too happy to leave that conversation.

She left the application room and ended up face first into dazzling white fabric and layers of pink hair soft as a well-kept litten. Pale arms encircled her before she could choke out a no. Ayame squawked instead. "Mum. Space, space."

"Sorry honey!" Her mother stepped back, smiling her usual too-wide smile for the public, the one that matched her creamy skin. "You just took so long that I was getting worried. What if you missed the banquet?"

Honestly, that would have been the least of her problems. She didn't need to be paraded around as Nancy of Nimbasa's daughter, the daughter of the famous shooting star who had worked with anyone from Sabrina to Diantha to at one point  _Green Oak_  on a minor gym leader expo tournament. It was all because of Green Oak that Ayame was here on this ship with her mother if she thought about it.

"Ama just wanted to talk, that's all." Ayame smiled back at her, avoiding the eyes of other passengers who took them in, lingered on Ayame's olive skin and the red, too red color of her eyes. "She said to remind you we have dinner with her tonight."

Her mother whined and mimed driving her foot into the carpeted floor. "All these meetings~ Where's my manager when we need him?"

"You left Curtis in Unova, mum," Ayame pointed out.

She giggled behind a slender, manicured hand. Ayame was suddenly incredibly aware of the rough calluses and nubbed fingernails of her own. "True." She left her arms loosely around her daughter's waist, not letting go just yet. "So, are you all set?"

"Mmhm." Ayame made herself smile back again without shifting away, itching under the feather-light touch. "When we get to Gearen and get all taken care of, it'll be nice and official. I'll go exploring the next day, probably."

Her mother beamed all the brighter, like a light bulb with settings. "Excited, huh?"

"Can't just be your daughter forever. I've got miko advancements to make and the like." At the way her mother's face fell, Ayame made to lift her hands in a consoling gesture. "It's not personal, mum. I just need a little space."

How could she just accept a person she barely knew after all?

Her mother had been around in video messages, in rare gifts and once every other movie visits where she cooed about her daughter getting strong and smart and good. Up until the past year, she had lived with her guardian and his husband and in the Theatre's comfy cushions. That was up until six months ago, where Nancy had just swooped in and arrived, dragging Ayame away just after her teachers had permitted her to get a starter of her own and journey to make a difference, to leave a mark on the world. And then Johto had just been out of the question after that.

Nancy had shown her to a whole host of people, people she had heard of, people she hadn't, pokemon she hadn't thought she'd ever get to meet, book after book of information passed into her hands until Ayame, in a fit of homesick rage, had thrown a guidebook against a hotel wall and cried for the parents she knew.

The next day, mum had passports to Aevium in the works, just like that.

Mom reached and stroked one lock of her hair, smoothing it down. Ayame twitched but let her, ignoring the way her face fell further. "I suppose you're right," the woman said with a sigh. "Still! We've got some time yet. Go explore the ship, I have to go to another meeting. Give the captain my regards, okay? He really has been looking forward to meeting you."

Ayame hesitated at first, but then she nodded. She could do that. She could talk to a couple people, wander around and not stay in the corner. Yeah, that was fine.

"I'll probably take a nap too," she added, mostly to console herself, give her something to look forward to.

Her mother patted her cheek. "You and your sleep. Be good." She released her and skipped away, a pokeball now dancing on her palm. Ayame watched her go, frowning under the brim of the hat she was carrying.  _Is she okay?_

Ayame could never be sure when it came to her mother. Maybe the fame really had gone to her mother's head, like people said. Or maybe she was just a nice person who did things. Ayame knew more nice people than people who did things.

Ayame shook her head and adjusted the volume dial in her pocket. Time to go take a look around.

Now that she had no choice but to look around at it, the ship was actually enormous on the inside. She hadn't looked too much at first. She was too tired from being on another mode of transportation early in the morning and being heckled by stupid paparazzi photographers. But now she could see creamy ceilings and walls, Viridian imported oak making up the rails and shined with Occa Berry glaze, to make them less flammable.

Someone glanced at her and then quickly away as they passed. Ayame's shoulders hunched and she sped up her stride, suddenly finding herself completely uninterested in examining the rest of the ship for at least the rest of this floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, Nancy watched Ayame disappear up one of the flights of stairs through the crack in the door of another room, her free hand clenched on the doorway. Then she let out a sigh and closed it, her neon-bright pink hair swinging elegantly about her hat. Everything about her was carefully constructed, built to be the societally appropriate star of the stage and cinema. "All right, she's left." Even her voice was harmless and breathless sounding. She wasn't sure why that would even be necessary. She used Fairy types.

"Wonderful." The other occupant of the small room raised a single dark eyebrow, her gothitelle's hand in hers. "Sit down. You're late."

Nancy pirouetted on her sharp heels, scowling ever so slightly. She strode across the room, white dress flying around her legs in quick shifts. "I'm only worried about her." Mawile's pokeball shuddered in her hand and she placed him in her bag beside another, beside the other.

"You don't have emotions with which to worry  _with,_ " the woman countered with a singular snort, brushing her black hair out of her face. "Don't attempt the impossible. We have a job to do, don't we?"

Nancy wilted like a tulip, folding into herself and expression dulling into line, into the obedient doll that she knew she was supposed to be. "Yes, but… are you sure this is the right thing? I… I'm starting to wonder."

"You don't need to wonder." The other let out a fond sigh. "You just need to make Ayame happy. Get to West Gearen, start your new life. Get rid of that thing in your bag."

"She wants to train, Crescent." Nancy knew it more than anything, knew it by the stiff way Ayame fled from touch. She wanted to be free, wanted to be alone with herself and able to prove that she was more than the machinations of the Ecruteak theater. She wanted to be strong and her own.

"And that matters?" Crescent regarded her thoughtfully through her bangs, lounging in her chair with her legs raised on the cushion. "It never seemed to matter to you before."

Nancy looked at the ceiling and did not respond.

* * *

"So, in Aevium, once you beat the Leaders, you have an Elite Eight to face." Augustus Briney stroked the wiry ends of his white beard as he spoke, his hot cofee completely untouched.

Ayame sipped her tea to hide the gradually creeping fear of facing  _twenty-seven_  elite trainers at the very least and the growing twitch in one eye because the Captain did not seem to have an off switch. "Why not four?" Seriously, wasn't the high-level trainer battling meant for places like the Battle Frontier

Augustus smiled at her. "Because four is a cursed number, is it not?"

Ayame shivered and nodded, taking a long sip of tea. The 'four is death' superstition probably wasn't the actual reason, but she could go along with it. Elite Four groups in the past few years had not been having a good time. Scandals and murders and all sorts of things. The entire upheaval in Unova right now was a great example of that, considering Plasma was still trying to go at it. "True." That wasn't even going into the rumor that Champion Lance was plotting the downfall of mankind. And with all the Elite Four accusations of not attacking cult groups, maybe they neeeded eight to get anything done.

The man winked, tugging on his sailor's cap. "Such a superstitious young woman you are."

Ayame made a face. "I lived in Ecruteak, sir." Ecruteak and Mahogany were almost as suspicious as Blackthorn, and they only weren't because they didn't worship a single type.

Augustus almost frowned, but he caught himself just in time. "That is very true. They are a suspicious folk there." He looked out the only round window of his office. "Ah. We are getting close. I should go check in on the lunch proceedings." He walked her out and Ayame yawned. "Going through the throes of puberty are we?" he chuckled. "My son was always tired when he was getting to your age."

Ayame made a face and laughed it off. "No, sir. I just get tired fairly often. I'll go rest until the banquet if that's all right." It was either that or him getting an actual answer on the slim chance he got remotely close to what it was.

"Of course. Just do not miss it. It's always a wonderful time."

 _Like mom would let me._ Ayame bowed quickly and left ahead of him, heading down the stairs and yawning again.  _I didn't finish my tea._  But she wouldn't be punished for it here. So it was rude but pardonable.

Her mother smiled at her over paperwork as Ayame hung up her hat and snuggled under the safe warmth of the comforter. If her mother's hand ran over her hair at that point, she for once didn't react to it.

Instead, she dreamed of a little girl screaming for help as she died and died and died and for once it wasn't her screaming, which was very odd.

She heard the chanting of a language older than people's guts and ancient tablets, calling a name of a ghost long-dead. Or a creature who only existed in fairy tales.

Yet there were records. Pictures, audio files shattered at the seams of the mp4. It, with its thousand arms, existed to them.

With red and green eyes, Arceus stared down at her.

"I hope you realize how much work you are," he said. He sounded so disgruntled and with a prod of a hoof, he shooed her away. "Go on. I'll deal with you later."

Ayame woke up with a violent shudder. Her mother held her tight and in an instant, Ayame lashed out with hands and nearly her knees because  _she couldn't breathe_ and seconds passed before she smelled the odd Liechi berry perfume. Ayame opened her eyes and curled away, up into herself where it was safe. Her mother smiled and wiped off the blood from her cheek.

"Just a scratch," she told her daughter, giggling a little. Not the public giggle but the worried one because her mother just couldn't be honest anywhere, anytime. "Don't worry, it will look good on my face.  _You're_ the one who must look beautiful, everyone knows me."

Ayame nodded along with her fib, shame curling in her gut. She didn't feel very hungry now. Still, she made herself actually sit up, smoothing the wrinkles from her beautiful white dress-

_That might look better with some red on it, red like your damn eyes, you spoiled freak-_

And retrieving her hat.

No, she could, she could not be a lady like her mother yet. Her grasp of the language was too weak and she didn't have the manners. But she could look it, and put up the facade a little. She smiled enough and kept her insults to herself. That would have to be enough.

"We need to go take our seats," Mum said gently, rubbing concealer over the razor-thin scratch. Ayame nodded again, picking up her bag from the shelf along with the clefairy doll next to it, ratty with age. She didn't know why, but she needed to do it, absolutely had to. She pulled it over one shoulder and put on her best smile.

"Ready."

Her mother grinned a conspirator's grin. "Let's give them a show."

Ayame tried to smile back, but the dream churned in the contents of her stomach.

* * *

Inside the elegant dining hall, Ayame listened to the prattle of the chef and their captain with only vague interest. The room was strangely dark, lit by small light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and a lot of candles on the tables. Coupled with the thick fabric tablecloths, it was really asking for a fire hazard. They must have been buying time for the food to finish. Then, with the chef's dramatic flourish, silver carts flew out from the doors to the side of the stage, placing covered plates at every table. Ayame wanted to groan. Why was this so dramatic?

Her mother laughed. "Enjoy the silly, Aya," she told her. "It's always a hoot."

"Or something," Ayame made to cut into her buneary when the doors in the back swung open themselves. A woman shrieked.

"There's a bomb downstairs!" Everyone stared dumbly at the woman at the door before she grinned. "And I put it there."

Her mother shouted something, something like her name and a command. She saw someone behind her mother, unmoving but for a hand at their fork. But then she didn't hear or see anything else because purple light washed over her and she was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hello there. I'm here. It took me a while, but as a celebration of the upcoming release of version nine of Pokemon Rejuvenation, here is part one of my run. I hope you guys enjoy it! Please leave a review down below if you can. I love them very much. Also as a small heads-up, the rating might increase at some point.
> 
> Challenges: Diversity Writing Anime/Manga M8. modernized!AU, Epic Masterclass (Pokemon Gen) Mix Tapes.


	2. For Your Sake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for improper use of pokemon moves, trauma, evil aliens, and near-drowning, and cursing. Also death.
> 
> REVISED: 02-24-18

For a few moments, she dreamed.

In her dreams, there was a happy little girl tugging on her father's leg. BLonde hair, emerald eyes, and a happy smile full of dreams. In her dreams, there was a mother bleeding from her head, the rest of her like a flattened durant. Ayame looked at a checkerboard floor. She half expected to see pieces lining the walls, waiting to rush her all at the same time. Instead, there are just doors and a grand piano on the left side. It played keys without any fingers on it and Ayame, as if tugged by destiny itself, went towards it.

Instead of reaching it, however, she smacked into a mirror. Hard. Or, well, hard enough that it stung her fingers. Ayame stumbled back dizzily and looked at herself in the mirror.

Blonde hair framed green eyes, four-leaf clover eyes that were supposed to be innocent. There was a hard gem in the center, a strange chill in the pupils that meant lack of sleep and more, so much more. She was smaller, cheeks chubbier and more full. Everything was wrong. She was too pale and stereotypically angelic for Ayame's taste.

Which meant that this was not her at all.

A voice called a name.

"Marionette."

 _No,_  Ayame insisted in the back of her gut.  _Not me. I'm-_

_Maria._

_Ayame. Ae-_

"Your father is waiting for you in the east wing."

 _Which one?_ Ayame whispered into the frills of her collar. Which one? Cause this person sounded like neither. Didn't sound right. Where was Mama? Where was Mum? Not here like always?

There was a loud smashing sound like someone had dropped a vase next to her ear. She cringed in pain and whirled around. The maid stared at her with utter disinterest, one of many, she subconsciously realized.

"Your father wants you in the east wing. I suggest you get moving."

Ayame heard her mouth open, ask a question in a voice that was high and soft and sweet and  _perfect._  Not hers at all. Wanting to be called her name.

All she gained in return was a  _laugh._

So she walked. Down ruined halls and past whispering maids. They were almost impossible to tell apart without their voices.

Ayame could  _hear_ , she suddenly realized. If she was capable of crying, she would have. It had been  _three years._  In knowing that, in realizing that, the hazy sort of quality that dreams gave you, suddenly sharpened.

 _This girl is going to die,_  said her mind, her thoughts retreating afterward, forcing her eyes open, forcing her to watch.

And she heard something terrible, she heard them calling to god what seemed like miles away.

She heard the little girl start to scream and shut her eyes-

* * *

Ayame opened her eyes to see the captain's room, head splitting and hearing aids sparking with static. It took her a moment to recognize it. There were patchy holes and things wriggling out of them, grey and drenched with what smelled like sea water. The more they moved around her, the more her head throbbed, centering around her ears.

"Warning," a tinny voice spoke by her ear. You would figure a hearing aid would do it telepathically- wait it was. "Psychic pokemon influence detected. You may experience disorientation and processing difficulties. Please make sure to dry hearing aids before continuing prolonged usage."

"What psychic po-" Then a gray tentacle exploded through the wood right by her left arm. Ayame rolled away from it with a shout of terror, catching herself on all fours.

"Holy crap," she whispered. The tentacle clawed and lunged but for some reason, didn't manage to get any closer to her hands, even as another lunged up from her right. Ayame forced herself not to jump this time, watching each one until they retreated into the depths of the ship once more. There were quiet sounds from the various holes, but there was way too much sparking from her hearing aids so she couldn't make out a single word. Ayame shivered and carefully picked herself up, leaving the tentacles wriggling in place. She crept slowly on her socks, shoes in one hand to make less noise. Other tentacles reached up and she skittered past them on the tips of her toes.

 _What happened?_ She looked around, jumping at each sharp vibration of crashing tentacles by her feet.  _What happened? What happened? Why did this happen?_

On the floor below, the pianist was sitting on a table, watching an unconscious passenger be dragged into the nearest hole. Someone else screamed a half a meter away and Ayame turned to watch their fingers scramble and then disappear, plunging below. She almost swallowed her tongue.

The pianist looked about the room, her jigglypuff floating about her head. She managed a watery smile. "Holy hell. How'd you get there, kid?"

Ayame bit her lip, the static on her hearing aids dying slowly, just enough that reading lips allowed her to guess the rest. "I… not sure." Someone must have teleported her, but she hadn't any idea except for that lady behind her. And why would she do that?

The woman made herself laugh. "Good enough, I guess. You need to get off the ship."

"What about my mom?" She couldn't just leave her. The woman was distant at best but that was still her mother.

For a moment, the pianist said things that she couldn't grasp. Ayame jammed her hand into her pocket to adjust the dial with her thumb. A piercing whine hit her in the head and she grimaced. Now she wished-

" _Metal Sound? In an enclosed area! What was he thinking?"_

" _He wasn't, of course. Poor things. Look at all these people..."_

For things that wouldn't happen. "I need to find her," she finally said, not trying to translate things that she didn't even remember hearing.

The woman sighed. "All right. Catch!" She threw a pokeball at her and Ayame fumbled her one-handed catch. "Puff will lead you to safety. Two of us on the floor is too dangerous. I'm surprised these things ain't got me yet." Her jigglypuff squeaked and got a scoff. "No, I'll go down after. When it's safer. I've got a boat now." The balloon pokemon made another squeak before floating to Ayame, looking distinctly put out too. Ayame put her shoes and the ball in her bag, barely remembering it was there.

"Thank you..." she managed, earning a shake of her head.

"Go, quick. Your mom's gotta have Pokemon that can get us some help."

That was probably true. She would surely have a part-Water type like primarina. She wasn't sure if it would be quick enough.

Ayame trailed after the bouncing balloon, which made chuffing noises as they descended further, towards the banquet hall. Or what Then, to be safe, Ayame returned it. Might confuse people. She gave what remained of the door a hefty shove, listening to the flailing of the tentacles as they smashed into the remaining wooden cabins. People groaned as the tentacles tugged, oblivious to their pain.

Inside, she found the boat captain weeping, blood on his face and horror in his eyes. He looked at her. "What are you… how?"

Ayame shook her head mutely, static filling her ears. "Mum?" It was all she could say.

He managed to point, fingers trembling. "Down below. She went to contain the fire from the bomb. But you can't go down there, it's too dangerous."

Ayame shrugged and turned around, running down to the stairs she had seen in her exploration. Everything was dangerous here. She didn't need to care anymore. What she did care about was the lack of movement from the tentacles towards her. That was… worrying. Not a relief. It meant she was singled out, special,  _significant._ Or it meant that she was not loud enough after all.

In an adventure, that was never good. It meant a quest, exploration. She didn't want that, not like this. She just wanted to get some badges, make some friends. Be normal. She was already too different as it was.

Her feet splashed into the water of a broken pipe, drenching her socks and freezing her legs. Ayame made herself go on. This would be okay. It would be fine. She just had to reach her mother and that teleporter. And then get out. However, that would happen.

She managed to make it part of the way into the storage room before her mother's Sylveon bowled her over, licking her on the cheeks and drenching them in seawater. Ayame almost laughed but it caught stuck in her throat.

Then her mother caught her hat and rested it on her hair. "Thank goodness," she murmured, brushing her cheek. "Thank goodness you're all right."

Ayame shivered and looked up towards the next hole. Her mother followed her eyes and Sylveon snarled. Two creatures flanked a young woman with purple hair, a sneer on their face. "She would have been all right if she'd remained hidden for perhaps a little while longer. But we cannot tolerate witnesses… and  _she_  is likely watching."

Ayame felt mum's fingers tighten on her shoulder. "Sylveon, attack."

The woman yawned. "Flash Cannon, Deoxy."

In the flash of resulting light, Ayame felt a very familiar pain ringing in her ears. During that ringing, her mother's hand moved to her own free one. "I'm sorry..." Larger hands shoved her back and Ayame nearly toppled forward. The message was clear.

_Run. Don't look back._

Ayame ran, feeling a stinging in her eyes, and did not look back.

She did not see her mother turn, nor hear the encouragement meant for her.

" _If it's you, you can move on. You can be free. Hurry!"_

Ayame was already out of the room, dodging flailing appendages until one of those monsters, a… deoxys, like the one sighted from Hoenn, was looking right at her. It lunged-

Only for a piano to crash onto its head and limbs, burying it in beautiful wood and porcelain.

Above her, the pianist cawed in triumph, only to scream. "Fuck you, you no good hentai magazine models! Can't take a good song can ya? Move, girl, move! Drag these screwballs out into the light and make 'em burn!"

Ayame felt Puff's ball wriggle on her and moved forward, up the stairs and up a deck, running to a lack of railing. All she had to do was get underwater long enough for them to not look and have Puff be a life buoy until she could get hope or release whatever pokemon was in the ball her mother had given he-

She shoved that into her bag too and hurried on.

An older man in a suit (when had these people found time to get here?) was standing there, with three of those monsters coming closer to her. The woman was already there. Panic gripped her stomach. Panic and fear and anger.

"Come now, little urchin," The purple woman said. "Come and be good. Your mother's rebellion will get you nowhere."

Ayame trembled with fear and cold and anger. "You… What use am I to you, huh?"

The elderly man stepped closer to the cracks in the bow, seemingly unafraid. "You're her daughter, are you not? Is it not apparent?"

"If I was good leverage, you'd have made effort to catch me first." Ayame moved her hand to her bag. A tentacle lunged, smacking it hard enough to bruise, and Ayame reacted, her other hand plunging in and snatching the ratty old doll from inside and tossing it high. The deoxys screeched, tentacles swimming as she dove under them. The purple-haired woman moved towards her and she rammed her head up into her chin. Reaching the edge, panting hard, Ayame threw herself over, hitting the water and a loud burst of streaming static and pain.

For a few moments, she was completely under, blind, deaf and unmoving. Then Puff's Pokeball opened and the giant balloon expanded underneath her. Ayame reflexively clawed for her bag and her hearing device. It needed to work. If she couldn't hear help arriving, she wouldn't answer and they'd be left here, floating to death or Puff would run out of energy and then-

If that happened, she  _had_  to return the jigglypuff. The Pokemon could survive inside the waterproof ball. She hoped. As for her? Well, she had a backup, a very dangerous, very painful backup.

Something red streaked towards her, possibly to the sound of her hacking up water. Sharp talons picked her up and threw her high, leaving Ayame flat on her back, things drooping with water. Ayame managed to fumble the pokeball out once more, leaving her alone with this apparent savior bird.

Passing out sounded really good right now.

However, the very second she tried, she felt the rain. Cold and unrelenting, it made her open her eyes to see what remained of the ship being dragged into the ocean below. A little pink dot bobbed and dropped part of the way.

Her father had placed that doll in her hands once.

Then the bird pulled her away, streaking with the rain and smoking with self-created flame.

Dead. Dead. Dead everywhere. All in that one place. All but her… and mum. Maybe.

She had to hope.

* * *

She dreamed of a young girl screaming again. Screaming awful things, calling for help.

She wished she'd been with the child so she could tell her: no one comes when you call. Not without suffering in return. People tended to hurt when they answered calls for help.

Ayame then woke to a gentle rocking beneath her back and the soft sound of rain hitting windows. She didn't shoot up this time. Everything in her ached, so she couldn't even try. She coughed.

Movement, blurry through her slit eyes, came from ways off There was garbled sound. She made her eyes open to see-

A floral patterned dress, sculpted, round features. Softer red hair, not Hoenn-bred because the skin was a little too dark for a simple sun-bent tan and too dark unless from Pacifidlog or Slateport. Everything about this person was power contained in a sloped jar. It was like a cork in a wine bottle. Just wait for it to break. Considering she was the one who currently had her in her clutches, wherever that may be at the moment, Ayame did not want to risk it. Not now. Her head throbbed. The ship had sunken, with people trapped in tentacle grips and her mother possibly with them. But it was unlikely. They had wanted to capture her. Would have been easier to capture a corpse, surely but she knew a corpse was less useful. The monks had told her so.

The woman's face was suddenly much too close and only the lead sensation in her body prevented Ayame from lashing out with her knee. Lucky for her, the woman leaned back after seeing her open eyes.

"You're a light sleeper." There was a  _bawwing_  sound, faintly audible from this distance, but she could make out the woman's syllables due to their close proximity. "Probably a good thing. How are you feeling?"

She had a voice like the oldest kimono girl to run the theater, soothing and yet knife worthy. Arceus help-

_Throb._

Bad throb.

Okay, no more Arceus swearing apparently.

"Everyone died," Ayame finally croaked out with some lack of self-preservation. "So, bad."

The woman laughed, curse her. "Good," she said. "I'd be really worried if you said you were fine." She placed her hand on Ayame's forehead and Ayame's hands twitched to grab the wrist. "Not much of a fever, thanks to Talonflame drying you off and getting rid of the wet clothes."

Ayame, hearing that sentence, flushed from head to toe. "Erm." She didn't want to say,  _of course, I don't have a fever, I can never have a fever again unless I'm frozen and in the deepest trench_ , but that would sound ungrateful and this woman's pokemon had just prevented her from eventually drowning to death or being captured again. Correcting her would only be suspicious in the long run.

The woman laughed. "Not to worry, I had a spare bathrobe. You're a small one." A pause. "And a scarred one."

Ayame squirmed. "That's not important."

"I'd say having a celebrity's daughter all scarred up on my boat's important." Sharp tone, softened at the flinch. "Your pink hair's a good identifier kiddo. I'm sorry to say, your mother has a rep around here. Nancy the Fairy Singer, or something, right?"

Ayame made a face. "Yeah. That's it, ma'am." Easier to agree with it, despite the slight inaccuracy. Besides, Nancy the Fairy Reaper didn't get as many fans. And it kept her from asking about the scars.

She got a mud-brown laugh, a real one. "Ma'am? Oh my, your parents must have taught you good manners. My name is Tesla, darling."

"Thank you for saving me, Ms. Tesla, and for speaking close to my ears." She would ignore the rest. That was safer, saner.

Tesla let out another laugh. "Well, I couldn't leave you nodding along and hung out to dry. At any rate, at the very least, your mother is likely alive, albeit in the clutches of a murderous organization." At the sight of Ayame's eyes widening, she sighed. "As a League representative, I am required by law to inform you of that and look into it, considering I also saw the debacle." She rubbed her temples. "Up until now, Team Xen has never gone this far to make progress… I wonder just what's changed." She stepped away from Ayame for a moment, muttering. Then she returned with a similar white dress to what she had worn before and her hearing aids. Ayame sat up and gingerly took them.

"Your hat's somewhere out to sea and your dress was ruined on the way down. Lucky for you, you're just about the size of my daughter before her last growth spurt."

Ayame deciphered one word in ten of this, but she bowed her head and took the items. For a moment or two, her ears filled with a vaguely familiar shrieking sound before settling into the low hum of actual noise. Then, without hesitation, she threw herself under the duvet to change, ignoring Tesla's incredulous eyes on her. Then she got an exasperated giggle.

"You could have just used the restroom for that."

Ayame flushed. Then, Tesla handed her her bag and looked outside to the sound of pattering rain. "Is that going to go down?"

Tesla shrugged. "Not for a while, I would gather. Due to the pollution, it tends to rain often in this area. Your old dress wouldn't have survived long in it. So you may have to purchase an umbrella in Gearen. It's not really worth it though."

Ayame nodded and bit her lip, worrying over it.

Tesla watched this. "Well, what are you going to do now?"

Ayame ran her fingers over the floral pattern on the flap of her bag and then rummaged inside. Puff's ball was apparent, a heart over its button. But the second, engraved with kanji, was only familiar with what it said on it. This was the gift from her mother.

"What I came here for," she finally said, looking up with the scarlet-red eyes that ruined the illusion of her being her mother's clone. "I'm going to challenge the Aevium League. But when I get stronger, I'll find my mother. I'll save her like she saved me today." Even though there had been no saving really, just opportunity. This woman did not need to know that, however.

Tesla's expression turned into a twitching frown before smoothing over. "I see. Well. Then you'll just have to get registered then, won't you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your support so far everyone! Sorry for the delay, I was holding back this chapter to see how long we would be waiting on Version 9, so I have a steady backlog. But now, we're back! Still going to be a bit slow, but, hey, it'll all be worth it. I have to decide what choices I want to make. But anyway, here we are. Below I'll be keeping track of the Pokemon we use here. Please leave a review, it helps me out with these busy weeks. And support Rejuvenation.
> 
> Ayame's Current Pokemon:
> 
> Owned:
> 
> ?
> 
> Borrowing:
> 
> Puff (jigglypuff) Friend Guard, lvl 46: Double-Edge, Hyper Voice, Gyro Ball, Toxic


	3. Aren't I Alone Already?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Swearing
> 
> EDITED: 02-23-18

Ayame, hidden under the nearest awning, watched Tesla go off towards the water on her talonflame. The woman had patted her head and for a moment it had felt safe to stand there with an adult. Then she had stopped and said, "Make sure you let Amanda know you're technically independent now" and Ayame's stomach had dropped, leaving nothing but a hollow rock and nausea etching itself into her face. Because she had forgotten all about that.

Trainers with no local family had no secondary source of income, no families to return to or guardians to fund on hard times. It was one of the cons that came from traveling outside of your home region. That meant the government had a hold of you until you were at least fifteen unless a relative or official popped in and adopted you from nowhere, or you were sent home.. If she was at home in Johto, pow, boom, straight back to Morty she'd go, for the three days it would turn for her to be resent somewhere else to complete her journey under the whim of the Kimono Girls. He had done it before when Nancy had left her at the gym and would do it again if he needed to.

Which was fine, and would have happened anyway with no idea who her birth father was and a mother technically absent before today. But she was in foreign territory, and judging by the brown water and crumbling warehouses, being a state ward was going to suck. And with the S.S. Oceana clearly lost at sea, the likelihood of a ship getting here anytime soon was a crapshoot, at best. At least the practice of battling for pocket change had never died out.

Unfortunately, the fact that she was here, rather than whatever region was on her birth certificate, left her at a distinct disadvantage. Her mother had most of her international papers, so she'd have to plea to Morty to get new copies if she even wanted to leave legally. And those would be tied up in bureaucracy. And it meant that she had no one who would sponsor her without serious convincing. And if this was a government that had brown water in its own ports, well, she didn't have much hope that they could do nearly as much as they needed to.

Not that she blamed Tesla for reminding her of that, it wasn't her fault. She had no idea. She had wanted to know, for some reason, but Ayame could chalk that one off to pity. Tesla had probably assumed like everyone else would, that she had grown up in the lifestyle of the rich and famous. She had not. Johto arguably, took care of its own, but that was only because Professor Oak was a notorious master of teamwork and philosophy and logic nonsense so no one stood against a bulldozer like that. It was also because Tohjo was incredibly superstitious and religious and all those other traditionalist things. She wasn't going to argue against that in this case.

She had a good reason to believe most of it as she shivered in the rain, her skin flaring up with heat for the second time today.

When trainer and pokemon were just a speck, Ayame turned and watched the rain underneath the awning. Grimacing at her pink hair, she resolved to get hair-ties and towels at the nearest pharmacy. Wet hair constantly on her back and on her face was just… urgh. Impractical. Very impractical. And she wasn't allowed to cut her hair ever again. Letting out a small cough, she started walking. As she passed by the docks, there was a small crowd, including what looked like a news reporter truck with a rolling camera.

Well… shit.

She kept walking. If they saw her, they'd either confuse her for her mother or interrogate her about her mother. She'd rather deal with neither. So she went the opposite direction, ending up at a rather large building. It had to be important. Every important building apparently had glass doors of some kind so far, unless they were steel. She poked her head inside to see people sleeping in chairs, women at counters, honestly it was a more modern looking customs office except emptier. The one in Johto was a mess daily because of the high people content. You didn't sleep the night you had to go through customs in Tohjo.

Ayame fingered her trainer card, then her volume button. The aids didn't feel particularly wet anymore, even. She was never questioning her mother's choice in anything but perfume again. They had survived an ocean fall and lost  _nothing_.

She stepped toward the counter furthest from the entrance. Realistically, that'd be her way into Aevium right?

"Evening to you!" the woman chirped. Ayame blinked and almost covered her ears. What time was it and how could anyone be that cheerful? "Do you have a passport?"

Ayame nodded then paused. Her mother had her passport… crap. "I have a trainer card?"

The other woman's eyes gleamed. It made her almost consider smacking into the reporters. "That'll do! C'mere!"

Ayame opted to follow rather than be dragged to another counter, where someone else took the card and did… something. Ayame had no idea how card verification worked, but whatever. They handed her back her card and welcomed her to hell, er Aevium.

She almost wanted to find the nearest boat back to Johto at this point. At least there, if you were absolutely insane, she could figure out the reason why.

* * *

Gearen City was, simply put,  _huge,_ and this was just the  _eastern side_ if you went by the venomous muttering outside a building with a red door. She had visited Goldenrod twice in her life and this easily outranked the place. Emolga swooped overhead, chased by cawing murkrow and shocking them in the rain. She coul barely see the distant tops of buildings and all of them were the same, black and grey except for the multicolored multitudes of doors. It was like a child's first painting of the big city.

Ayame shot a glance at the nearest street signs, ignoring the low voices murmuring on the nearly empty streets. Well, in all those trainer biographies that only she was nerdy enough to actually read, the best place to go to get a starter and training kit was the nearest laboratory, and there was a map that said go straight. Hah. That was funny.

But still, forward it was.

Thankfully the lab was actually super damn obvious once she looked. It was the only silver building around, and its green-tinted windows were drenched in rain. Seriously, was it a trend to have outlandish, garish buildings be as relevant as possible? "Must need something to do with all that money," Ayame muttered, pressing the door open.

A familiar black and red cap stuck out in the middle of clean tile everywhere, perusing a book with too much intensity. "Amanda?" Her voice was a little hoarse. Exhaustion probably.

The young woman turned and smiled in relief. "Aya!" she rushed over, looking her up and down. "You're late… and you've lost your hat. And your mother. I thought she was going to be here."

Ayame's lips twitched, forcing the smile of a true hero. "It's… a long story."

Amanda's dark eyes narrowed slightly, and Ayame felt uncomfortable. That probably had more to do with the fact that she was drenched again. "Worthy of League attention?"

"Uhm..." Ayame scratched her head. "Probably."

Amanda grimaced. Ayame wasn't quite sure why she was asking, this was probably high above her pay grade as a recruiter. "All right, okay… let's get you a voice recorder. We'll make this fast so you can get a room and get some sleep."

And never have to talk about this again, dear Arce- Throb. Ow.

Ayame rubbed behind her left ear. That was going to get annoying really fast.

 _Then stop doing it and have some respect._  The voice hissed with irritation.

The last time someone disrespected a god it was by chaining it to machines, what was invoking it going to do to her at this damn point?

_More than you know._

Well, she was already hearing voices, and this wasn't even a voice she knew.

Amanda pulled her from the voices in her head and led her to a room. The interrogation was quick, thankfully, as she had none of those dramatic voice hitches that she needed to sound emotionally compromised. That was probably a sign of a problem. Oh well. She was probably still in shock if she actually wanted to think about it.

After a good few minutes of sitting in an empty room, Amanda led her up the stairs again to another room, with an actual bed.

"Normally," the woman began, lips quirking. "I'd just send you on, get your pokemon and stuff, but Professor Jenner's currently off on work and you're supposed to get the training kits from wherever he hides them. So, for now-" She dropped a stack of papers on the bedside table. "Read those, take a breather. You're an independent now, you should at least know what you're up against."

Ayame skimmed the top form, trying to find it within her to complain. Paperwork sucked. But it was admittedly better than going out in the now thunderstorm. "Sponsors? I can actually get financial help here?"

"It's rare but yeah." Amanda shook her head. "Considering the number of orphans that come here thinking it's their big break and things… Anyway… Imma hit the hay. See you in the morning."

Ayame wanted to comment on the sheer lack of cares in that last sentence but she was pretty sure the scout had just teleported from her room. Wow. Okay then. She supposed that was fair. All the pain was coming back to her all at once and that was just not cool so she probably should take this as a time to relax a bit.

Settling onto the bed, Ayame picked up the paperwork and started to read. Thank god Amanda had left a pen and these rooms had paper pads. She wasn't going to just numbly absorb everything and not understand it. She had  _questions_. And these questions could determine whether she lived or died... or lived painfully.

Or at least, she had questions until her eyes hurt, which at that point Ayame flung the papers back on the table and flopped back on the pillows. No wonder trainers dropped out so much. Keeping track of stipends, health concerns, any of that without one of those high tech phone things was asking for it. Or was it a pokedex? Maybe Aevium did it with a pokedex. That sounded nice.

Ayame groaned and rubbed her eyes once more. Then, she examined her bag. Neither of those pokeballs had wriggled once in the many hours. Were they dead? She doubted it but still. She pulled out both balls and expanded them. Puff was probably fine, it was a jigglypuff and had no reason to hate her aside from this afternoon's disaster. Now, whatever was in that ball from her mom…

Hopefully, Puff could just ram it out cold if it was antagonistic.

That thought in her head, Ayame expanded both balls and tossed them to the floor.

Puff popped out, floating around eagerly until it saw Ayame and drooped with disappointment. "I'm sorry," Ayame told the balloon. "She told me to run."

The jigglypuff bobbed, then its big blue eyes turned to the other occupant of the room. Who, as a matter of fact, was growling at her. Ayame crawled to the edge of the bed, not even getting an ear twitch of acknowledgment. Nope. It was staring right at Puff and looked ready to maul.

Considering it was an eevee, that was a hilarious idea. It was adorable until you got to the glazed look in its eyes, the slightly matted fur, and the way the pointy ears were back and ready to pounce.

"Hey!" Ayame half-shouted. "Quit that!"

To her surprise, said eevee stopped. It turned away from Puff and stood straight at attention in her direction. Ayame blinked, then patted the bed. "Up."

Up it went, following the patting until it was right in front of Ayame's legs. She reached down and pet the fox-thing, expecting small teeth to sink into her fingers. However, nothing happened. Only more blank stares.

"What's with you?" she asked it, only getting silence in return. Its eyes bored into her face, but it did not stop her from petting. The normally soft eyes of an eevee, looking this close, were a hollow, dull purple.

Then Puff made a sound and its head snapped towards her. Eevee snarled and something pulled out from beneath Ayame's fingers, flowing out like water and washing about.

"No." Ayame had no idea what that was but she did not like it. "Bad Eevee. You aren't attacking her."

Eevee immediately went silent and nearly completely still. That said, its tail twitched.

Ayame thought this over. "You like me talking to you huh?"

Another twitch.

Ayame nodded at this. "Kay then."

Puff stared at them and then floated over, settling next to the pillow. This time, Eevee did not react. This earned an ear scratch. Ears shifted back ever so slightly. Maybe a muscle reflex?

This seemed weird. Not weird enough to merit her waking Amanda or someone else quite yet, but weird.

Puff floated over her head and dropped a piece of mail and a memory card on her pillow. The letter smelled like Liechi. Her mother's favorite berry.

Ayame opened the envelope. She managed to read about four lines before jumping out of bed and running down the hall.

"Nurse," she called, clutching the barely responsive creature. "Nurse! Nurse!" She barely made it to the counter before blurting out- "I think something's wrong with this pokemon!"

Like that, according to those papers, she had a  _Shadow type pokemon._

* * *

Less than fifteen hours later, it was confirmed that celebrity Nancy, trainer extraordinaire and master of fairies, had indeed had a Shadow Eevee in her possession for whatever reason. Up until however, she got it, which Amanda was refusing to tell her because whatever was in that memory card and in the parts of the letter she hadn't read, it had been in Aevium. Not that she got to use it, Ayame apparently had to wait until she got a real starter instead of just running off into the wind. Because Puff legally wasn't hers.

"But why can't I start with eevee?" Not that she particularly wanted to start with a murderbeast that was supposed to have been made specifically made in Orre but apparently wasn't? She had no idea. But still. Mom had given her that! She wasn't just going to let the thing go!

"The professor would probably confiscate her." Amanda led her up the escalator, politely ignoring Ayame's frequent yawns. "Team Xen tends to have them and make them. They probably stole Cipher technology to do it, but there are plenty of methods of breaking a pokemon's heart. So he'd confiscate it for the sake of our healing reputation. Also, there's not a legal gym anywhere that'll let you bring a shadow to your gym battle. It's cheating and gives a bad rep besides. So, we'll just write the little fella off as your therapy pokemon. You feel me?"

Ayame tried to grin. "I probably need one anyway, the head case I am."

Amanda reached down and poked her in the nose. "Cute. Now, let's get to Jenner and get the hell outta here. I got more people to scout."

Ayame waited for the older woman to look away before flushing in guilt. She was being an inconvenience here, wasn't she?

Lucky for her, the woman didn't notice. She was distracted by someone running down the escalator at full speed. Ayame felt the Eevee lean against her dress as she did so. It was probably just for body heat. Puff's pokeball shook in her bag.

"Too bad that Fairy there's a level forty-six," Amanda muttered. "Coulda made a real splash like that, Aya."

"I'm not using a dead lady's partner without permission," Ayame replied without hesitation.

Amanda hummed. Ayame didn't really care whether she did or not. Wasn't like it would work anyway. The captain had told her so.

They entered a spacious room decorated in red and black. Like the woman's uniform on the ship. Ayame let her eyes wander until they locked on a giant screen with a woman's face. A man, who was probably the professor, was speaking to whoever it was. Ayame turned up her earbuds and winced at the static.

Amanda coughed, tapping her foot and the screen went off as the man jumped to turn around. He was a rather tall man, with a pleasant, slightly round face and dark blue eyes. His brown hair fell in a lazy mop. That was fair. It was nine in the morning here.

Ayame ran her hands through her scraggly locks of pink. Could she get her pokemon and  _go_? She had planned for a good three days of adjustment to the time zone change and new life things, picking out furniture for their apartment and doing grocery shopping with her starter. Granted, it was her decision to eschew that, but the sleep was definitely necessary.

Amanda leveled the professor with a not-amused look and the man smiled. That small smile made the hair on the back of Ayame's own neck stand on end. She shook it down, put her own smile on. That was the right way to do things. This person would give her what she needed and that would be that. There was no reason to get his ire. None at all.

"Aya made it in last night," Amanda reported, slipping right past every formality possible. Wow. Ayame mentally noted the shorter name. Aya. The pink hair would be a coincidence or dyed to look like the famous celebrity. Not actually her daughter from the rumors, came in on another boat, accurate fangirl to the clothes. The answers, the disguise, flooded her brain in rapid succession and soon, Ayame relaxed her mouth into an easier grin, lips upturned and back to show off her teeth in the light. She crinkled her eyes like the grandfathers of her hometown demonstrated and looked, suitably young.

"Hi mister Jenner," she greeted, straightening her back. " Nice to meet you! Sorry, I'm late, the boat took a detour for some reason! I don't think they expected the rain to be quite like this! My hat went flying! I bet some murkrow's got it by now!"

The man laughed and Amanda's lips quirked. Ayame refused to break character now. A twelve-year-old girl, eager to prove herself, nervous until attention was placed upon her, a fan of a celebrity with an eevee in her arms (preparing to be  _Nancy's Sylveon_ ), wanting to be  _just like her idol_ , and quick to talk and give excuses that excised her of the blame. In short, a dime a dozen girl who needed a dose of reality. The only thing missing was her hat and the beautiful ribbons. As it was, she made sure to tilt her head so her bangs covered her eyes as much as possible.

Her mother was famous and the color of her eyes was nearly impossible to mimic with contacts or surgery. Sure, he could argue coincidence or rich parents of her own, but he was a scientist and she was here. He wouldn't argue coincidence.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Professor Jenner said with a chuckle. "They must have been a new boat then, it's rather common knowledge around here to worry about the storms. But! You're here now, so here's what you've been waiting for. Let's get you a starter, all right?"

Ayame smiled all the brighter and leaned on her eevee's furry head. "Yes, sir!"

She couldn't fake her surprise when the eevee licked her chin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post this last night after work I'm sorry! It's been a busy couple of weeks for me. And still will be. Boy will I be glad when I have a steady job. Theoretically. Anyway, I know about the change from Amanda to Amanda. For the moment, I will keep it Amanda. At least until I have time to go back and edit it all at once. So bear with me.
> 
> Also backlogged enough of the game that I can officially mess around with a good few bits. I'll see what happens with Blacksteeple. Anyway, won't ramble on anymore. Please let me know if the reasoning makes sense, especially considering you can't use shadow pokemon in gym fights anyway.
> 
> Ayame's Current Pokemon:
> 
> Owned:
> 
> Eevee (Shadow Type, Currently Unsafe): ?, lvl 5: Shadow Rush
> 
> Borrowing:
> 
> Puff (jigglypuff) Friend Guard, lvl 46: Double Edge, Hyper Voice, Gyro Ball, Toxic


	4. Flames in the Rainwater

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Past implied bullying, Ren, anxiety
> 
> I edited the previous chapters to change a plot point that hasn't really come up yet. Still kinda important!
> 
> REVISED:03-03-18 in preparation for next chapter. The rest should be good.

The pod encircled her whole body and Ayame swallowed to contain what muffin she had managed to choke down an hour ago. Amanda had winked at her as she went through the door and that didn't imply anything nope. Not at all. The pod (it was an elevator, why did this elevator fit one person) and feel like the one time she had used a water slide, this was a capsule pod) jolted and down they went. The eevee did not react, but that wasn't all too surprising. It only seemed to react to stimuli from her. It was likely all the fairy dust from being around her mother and her pack of fae. Fitting, she supposed. Maybe these shadows were weak to fairy lights.

As they descended, everything came back to her, crushing about her shoulders and back. A ship was dead. Because of her mother. Because, in a sick way, of her. She shook her head.

"Can't think like that," she said to herself. "Need to be strong."

 _Hollow words, still waters,_ her guardian whispered in her mind.  _Niceties won't change the world. Be honest with yourself._

"I need to stop trembling," She corrected herself. "I need firmer feet. I need to study pokemon. I need to love my partners." Whatever that meant. "I need to throw a punch. Then I will be stronger."

She rubbed eevee on the head. No response this time. Well, it was strange enough to have a response at all.

The pod settled and opened. Ayame stepped out and for a moment, stared. Natural underground modules. How could this place have so much pollution and yet have such a realistic looking module for pokemon to live in? That heat from the right was almost as hot as actual volcanic lava wasn't it…? Nah, they wouldn't get that lucky. Or that reckless. She hoped.

She stepped out and hurried down the steps, still staring about. It wasn't exactly beautiful, but it was fascinating to imagine the construction of. Eevee didn't seem to agree.

Pokemon after pokemon rushed about at the sound of her steps, going to gather at her feet. Eevee twitched, claws unsheathing and threatening to burrow out into Ayame's bare arms. She made a shushing sound and knelt to greet the eager starters. Most of them were typically fire types and grass types. Not that all water types were aloof, but most of them preferred the warm water, letting her come to them. In the mountains beside Ecruteak, the only pokemon from the water who came near were the magikarp or the marill, and the magikarp were just trying to find something to help them evolve and commit mass murder.

So for now, she didn't mind petting all of the eager chikorita that came close and nuzzled her, recognizing the scent of earth and berries. (She had to wonder if her mother's perfume was permanently etched into her skin.) A chimchar climbed close to her ear, earning the nose twitch from her eevee. Most of the fire pokemon, however, seemed uninterested beyond that.

Not that this bothered Ayame. She had had no dreams of the perfect starter. It was an unofficial Ecruteak law that every girl and boy apprenticed with the Kimono Girls or the Bell Monks were going to be given a starter of some kind, usually an eevee (how ironic). Still. She let herself wander over to the water, still followed by the bulbasaur and now, surprisingly, the torchic cluster.

Immediately, the air felt cooler, the breeze from the air conditioner a relief over her face. A piplup stared impassively at her from its vigil. Then it dove, splashing the torchic away. Said chick squawked with indignation. Ayame felt a helpless, genuine giggle bubble up from her mouth. Well, it clearly wasn't either of those two. They had a rivalry to uphold!

She trailed over the wooden dock until coming face to face with a blue seal. It had much bigger eyes than the seel of Tohjo waters, and a smaller mouth and its skin could easily blend in with sunny water. It let out a brief honk from its big pink nose and then barked, letting out delighted squeals at the sight of someone's face on theirs.

"That's a popplio." Amanda chirped as she stepped down the elevator. "Cutie, huh? It took a lot of strings to get those pulled from Alola."

Ayame tilted her head. Alola was one of the more easygoing regions. The common joke was that they didn't  _have_  regulations, not with the Aether foundation handling most of the pokemon efforts. "Really?"

"Yup." She held a litten in her arms and it looked grumpier than the nearby piplup. "They don't think Aevium is clean enough and other things. They're also a fair bit savage happy over there. You know, death runs and such. We're pretty cuckoo over here but at least it's not monetized like that. Also, have you  _read_  their legends and mythology?"

Ayame decided to turn away at that thought (because just because you weren't making money off of it didn't mean it didn't happen) and held out her hand to the little seal. It barked and plopped a finpaw on her own.

"I think he likes you."

Ayame felt her heart in her throat and swallowed it. Liked her? Really? Truly? She gently pulled her hand away and picked up the seal in both hands. It – He?- latched on at once, yipping and chattering in her ear. Eevee only stared straight ahead after climbing to her head. At least they had some self-preservation skills in that quiet head of theirs? Meanwhile, the popplio was eager to investigate, sniffing and nuzzling and licking off murky sea water salt taste that likely still lingered after the fall.

She wanted to tell it to stop but she didn't think she could. So she picked them up and looked at Amanda. "I guess this one's mine."

Amanda grinned at that. "Good! Then let's battle."

Ayame tried not to twitch. "No."

Amanda pouted at once. 'Oh come on Aya. I'll even go easy on you." She tossed a pokeball that Ayame was sure hadn't been in her hand a second ago and out popped a red and yellow fox. Oh… it was cute! All of Ayame's mind summoned up images of a flareon dancing upon a stage. Somehow, she got the feeling he wouldn't appreciate that.

"Fennekin," she said out loud, containing that urge to run up and hug the little guy.

The fennekin barked agreement and Amanda smiled, ignoring the way the litten grunted in her lap. "That's right. Now, let's get going! C'mon, trainer!"

This really  _was_  going easy on her. Who did Amanda think she was? The eevee stared at the fennekin but that was all it did. Huh. All right.

Ayame put the popplio down. "All ready, Isaiah?" The popplio barked, whether at his name or in agreement, Ayame couldn't tell. "Let's go then."

Isaiah moved forward. Amanda grinned, that bloodthirsty pro trainer expression that Ayame imagined her mother must have worn to survive Unova. "Tackle, then Ember!"

 _Two-stone throw,_  Ayame thought, recalling old, old training. She dropped her hand. "Hold fast, then close up Water Gun!"

Isaiah squeaked with alarm as the fox went rushing to ram him in the face. That said, he released a burst of water that hit the poor fox and made it stumble. That said, these pokemon seemed to really be little ones. They couldn't hit hard and couldn't take a hit hard. So this would have to be quick. "Tackle!" Ayame called, wincing in agitation. Kimono girls were supposed to learn to not rely on words, but that took time. Time she didn't exactly have mid-battle. "Speed yourself up with your flippers!"

Isaiah let out a squeak of alarm and obeyed, throwing himself right into fennekin. The fox stumbled and released a few new embers. Isaiah barked in pain and slapped Fennekin right on the nose. Fennekin jumped away, whining terror. He fired embers in retaliation.

"Dodge! One more Water Gun!"

"Ember!"

Ayame watched as the jet turned the pitiful little embers into falling soot and send the fox rolling until they smacked into Amanda's feet with a pitiful whine. Then she smiled and clapped her hands. "You did it, Isaiah!"

The little otter let out a bark of confusion, then whirled and ran to her. She scooped him up and hugged him tightly. There was a small hiccup of a pause then the flipper arms wrapped around her in return, excitable barks and squeaks making themselves clear in her chest.

Amanda returned the shivering, drenched fennekin, her eyes sparkling with mirth. "Is it always that exciting in Johto about it?"

"A first battle must always be exciting for a beginner," she recited, even adopting Lady Zuki's soft, strident tones. "If it bores them it is not a battle, only a bullying."

Amanda scratched her litten behind the ears. "You Kimono Girls are weird, you know that, right?"

"More like superstitious," Ayame admitted, reaching to pet her eevee on the top of the head. Still a reflexive lean but only that. It wasn't out of actual affection. According to that little addendum in trainer booklets, in case someone tried going to Orre during reconstruction and managed to find one even though they were supposedly rounded up, Shadow Pokemon showed reflexive affection first and real interest second. Until then, it was more like a ditto trying to be an eevee.

Though how she was going to do that in  _Aevium,_ where Shadows weren't supposed to be in the first place, was beyond her.

Nothing to do about it now. She looked to speak to Amanda, figure out where she needed to go next (hadn't she mentioned at least one gym in her video spiel?) when the elevator opened. Professor Jenner strode down or rather nearly ran. If he hadn't likely been afraid of tripping, Ayame suspected he would have bolted down the stairs.

"You are so impatient, Amanda," he managed to wheeze out.

 _You don't look much better._  Ayame watched his shoulders heave like he'd barely waited for the elevator. "Is everything all right mister Jenner?" Isaiah turned his head to look at the professor. He gave the man a concerned bark, only to then promptly ignore him. Boy, he was a cheeky little thing huh?

The man's eyes went wide for a moment, noting the concern on her face (and probably the similarities to her mother. Though would her mother be concerned about others? Ayame would be the first to admit that she had no idea. "Ah, well, you see, I need to give you your kit and I heard-"

"Professor!" called someone from behind them. Ayame saw the man's face fall with disbelief and Amanda hide a snort behind her hand. Ayame tilted her head in concern. Was this common?

The man made himself smile and turn to the newcomer, who strode in with his scarf seeming to billow from the fans in the room. His dark eyes sparkled with joy. "I was looking for you!" he said, his boyish voice cracking slightly.

"Couldn't have guessed," Amanda muttered under her breath.

Jenner smiled a little more as if that would somehow. "Did you find anything interesting in Amethyst Cave, Ren?"

Ren shook his head, black hair falling over his forehead like bird feathers. "Nope, sadly. A lot of my pokemon got creamed by a random klink in a mining cart."

"Some idiot keeps dropping electric gems in there for fun apparently," Amanda said dryly. "We'd arrest him if we could."

"I dunno if it's worth that," Ren said, scratching his head sheepishly. "It was just a pain, that's all. I did hear some weird noises from the eastern side. Bug noises."

Amanda's eyebrow quirked. "Well, that's unusual. I'll look into it." She lifted her hand in a wave. "On that note, I'm off. Got more children to put on my conscience. Later!"

Ayame waved, with Isaiah barking once more in farewell.

Jenner shook his head in exasperation before looking at the two youths. Ayame narrowed her eyes a little at Ren. He was a little older than her, he squeaked like some of the higher monks when giving sutras to their first clientele of panicked Olivine mothers.

Was she going to be the baby of this adventure? Probably.

Jenner cleared his throat. "Well, then, Ren, if you wouldn't mind helping me with something else…?"

Ren beamed a little too wide now that Ayame was paying attention. "Sure! What do you need sir?"

Eevee let out a snuffle of breath. Ayame was fairly certain it wasn't a snort. Jenner only smiled. "Aya here is a newbie. Would you mind giving her a little practice?"

Ren smiled at her now, and Aya blinked. It had rather looked like he had sharp teeth for a second there. Weird. Maybe he was just one of those people who enjoyed winning, even if it was winning against newbies.

Ayame had to beat the guy just to get rid of that face what the hell. Instead, she smiled right back at him, looking even a little excited. Hell, she actually felt sort of excited, to be able to crush this guy like the kind of arrogant jerk he was. "I'm in!" She looked down at Isaiah curiously. "If he is."

The big black eyes stared at her for a good, long moment. Then the popplio beamed and gave a happy bark. He squirmed out of her arms and to the ground, taking his place on the battlefield once more. Ren raised an eyebrow.

"Cute," he said, tossing a pokeball. "Meet my newest partner. Froakie, upswing!" He threw his ball with a flourish and out popped a light blue frog. He croaked.

Ayame raised an eyebrow, resisting the urge to point out that starters were cute nine times out of ten. Then she let out a snort. "Growl!"

"Water Gun!"

Froakie was faster but only succeeded in getting Isaiah wet. With a bark and without any waiting, he threw himself forward, slamming into Froakie before he could escape. Isaiah bounced away with a bark, forming a bubble on the tip of his nose.

Ren winced and Ayame nodded to herself. Froakie was clearly a lightning bruiser type then. If tackle hit that hard too, then he was close to a fragile speedster, so he could attack well but not take a hit. Which meant that one good grass, electric, or if he gained a secondary typing (She could have sworn it was a dark type), any of those, would send him sprawling with one good blow if they were fast enough to hit or able to reel him in.

Which, since she was starting to think Isaiah was going to be a slow puppy seal, was the plan for now. "Tackle!"

Isaiah launched himself again, a dangerous projectile with no braking system except crashing and that was… exactly what happened. Froakie had tried to leap back, throw the bubble mane even. However, Isaiah's skull connected nastily with his throat and sent them both into the grass. Isaiah barked and clapped his paws together with pride, waddling away to Ayame. Froakie made to get up, head spinning from the blow. Then he fell back, head lolling on his shoulders.

Ren made a face. "Well, that was anticlimactic." He reached for the pokeball that had been returned to his belt. "Thanks, Froakie, good job."

Isaiah leaped over to her, beaming brightly. The result almost led to eevee toppling from her shoulder. The tiny claws sank into her shoulder. She didn't wince but straightened quickly. Pain or none, she needed this dress intact, at least for the foreseeable future until she could afford more clothes. At least better clothes. Ayame picked them both up, putting eevee on her head instead. They flopped listlessly there.

"Not bad," Ren said after a moment, looking at her through his hair. He held out a few bills and some change and she slipped into the pocket of her wallet. She would be so glad to get a pokedex. Trainer cards had limits on how much money you could get from beating the snot out of people. Pokedexes? Not so much. She had o idea why, something abo "Beginner's luck though. I'll get you next time."

"If you say so," she chirped, trying not to growl at the utter irritation this person already possessed upon her. She didn't want a next time, thank you very much. She wanted to survive this place and get out. Then again, if she could continue to beat him this easily and steal his pocket change, it might work out. So did that mean she would have to deal with him?

The look on the Professor's face indicated that was more than likely. Great.

"Anyway," Ren said, turning away from her to the professor once again. Ayame resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I came to tell you that there was something weird going on in Amethyst Cave. I think I saw joltik making webs on the eastern side."

The man's eyes widened a fraction. "Joltik? That is..." He pinched his nose. "That is severely unusual. Are you willing to go back and investigate in the morning?"

Ren saluted. "Course. For now, I need to get these guys healed up." He left quickly and Ayame resisted the urge to sigh in relief like the professor did after the elevator closed. He wiped sweat from his brow and then pinned her with a curious stare. Ayame blinked back, not faking the innocent confusion on her face.

"Yes, sir?" she asked, shifting on her feet at the weight on her arms and shoulder.

He frowned a moment. "You… I can't put my finger on it, but you look… too much like her. Like that woman-"

"Do I?" She interrupted, brain working quickly. "I worked hard to make that possible-"

"Except your skin," he finished, eyes narrowing. "You are too dark."

Oh,  _that_ was offensive. Ayame tried to ignore the prickling in her skin. "Well, there's nothing wrong with that."

"No," he agreed, a little too quickly. "No there is not." He stepped closer to her and placed a red and black box in her outstretched hand. "Your trainer's kit."

 _It looks like an Unova lunch box._ "Thank you!" she said aloud. Her face was hurting from smiling this wide for so long.

His shoulders seemed to shuffle down. "You're very welcome. Now, I… I'm not the most research happy of the professors." He smiled once more. "The academic knowledge of the pokedex interests me, but not quite as strongly. For me, the most important thing is the outliers, the unnatural. I like to learn about situations that don't happen for an ordinary trainer."

Hence why he was never learning about her eevee, ever.

"That said, I have a small concern." He shifted on his heels. "There are things happening in Aevium, dangerous things. I sent my daughter, Melia, out on an exploration of Goldenwood Forest to the north. The train ride is not even that far. I expected her to message me when she arrived, you see."

Rambling. Lying. Somewhere. Ayame couldn't place where exactly but there was something wrong with this explanation. "Would you like me to go look for her?"

He relaxed further. "Oh, would you? She needs to know to call me."

 _Boy, that sounds nice._  She was already getting a little homesick. "Sure, you can count on me."

And he could. As long as the lie had nothing to do with her, it would be fine. As long as he didn't catch her lies in return, it would be even better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's back! After some replaying of v9 and staring at the status bar of version ten I finally got past my mild irritation with Ren and shoved this out. Now, I did edit the first three chapters to make sure backstory was consistent (even though little backstory has been revealed). At the moment, depending on the results of Grand Dream City arc, but right now we have the story split into 4-6 parts, each with a cover of its own. I just got some new drawing software so I can work on the first cover and put it up. When it's up though, I'll make a note in the update. I'm very glad to get back to this! See you all next time where we meet Melia! And... well, we all know what's coming.
> 
> Ayame's Current Pokemon:
> 
> Owned
> 
> Eevee (Shadow Type, Unsafe) lvl 5, Moves: Shadow Rush, Growl, ?, ?
> 
> Isaiah (popplio) Torrent, lvl 7 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Water Gun,
> 
> Borrowing
> 
> Puff (jigglypuff)Friend Guard, lvl 46:Double-Edgee, Hyper Voice, Gyro Ball, Toxic


	5. The Power of A Kind Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: God, cursing, issues

"Here you are!"

Ayame bowed her head to the nurse once more, taking Isaiah's ball back into her hand. She rolled it over her fingers for a few moments, awe making her throat dry. She was a trainer now. A real trainer, not just one borrowing someone else's pokemon to practice with. Not just practicing catching for other, real members of the Theater, meant for plays and youths and children, for those born into the position. She wasn't a selected member of the group, useful and not allowed. She was a part of a great and terrible network, ready to slaughter them all to pieces and survive.

It was a bit melodramatic, but wilder regions like this one enjoyed that sort of weird nonsense. Right? A lot of the Johto stories were pretty violent anyway.

Speaking of the wild, she had some pokemon to catch. But before that, she had one more thing to do. Ayame brushed the pokeball with her fingers as she clipped it to the magnetized belt left in the kit. Sitting down on the nearest bench, she began to move things around in her bag, settling the pieces of the kit into her bag. Then, she went to the PC and registered, setting her trainer card in to confirm everything. The computer let out a cheerful beep at her. Ayame managed a smile and eevee shifted mindlessly to her other shoulder.

"Can you read minds now," she asked it. No response came back of course, but it made her feel better to talk to it. She'd heard that was helpful.

A nurse tapped her on the shoulder. Ayame twitched and turned to look at her. She forced a smile as quickly as she could.

"Yes?"

Thankfully, the nurse hadn't even seemed to notice and held out her hands. "Would you like to bring your eevee in for a rest as well?"

Ayame hesitated then nodded. "I think she'd love it." The woman hadn't minded healing her pokemon once she had figured out what it was and still didn't seem to now. Maybe the nurse thought she was an idiot. She merely laid her hand above the woman's own. Eevee obeyed, crawling over to the nurse and onto rapidly appearing the Chansey's offered tray.

The nurse then took the eevee's ball from her, affixing it to the machine. "Thank you very much! This being this Shadow Pokemon's first time in a center under your name, I'm going to draw up some data. Please return after you hear the intercom." At Ayame's slow, confused blink, the nurse shrugged. "It's Orre's old protocol. We've been using it in Aevium since Team Xen started moving about, just in case. Shadow Pokemon can be done. It's just normally a slow process." That explained why they needed more data despite Amanda having handled it last night.

Well, that was another slight delay, but if Melia or whoever did go missing, these few minutes spent by a kid getting prepared wouldn't hurt anyone. It wouldn't make her any more prepared to save her. So she headed back to her room to just sit down and think. Inside, it was blissfully cool and all of her things now no longer smelled of seawater and whatever was in it. It was easy to pack everything into her bag and watch it all pop away into particles.

The only problem now was the tiny white horse standing on her pillow.

That had not been there when she had left earlier.

It glowered at her, red and green eyes giving off heavy displeasure despite not having a mouth. " _There_  you are." A thin, nasal voice resonated in her mind. "If you took much longer, I was going to go try someone else. We are in a time crunch, you know."

Ayame's mouth dropped open. "Uh." Isaiah's ball trembled on its holster. "Uh… sorry, who are you?"  _At least I didn't say what._ Maybe it was a psychic-type?

The glowering eyes narrowed into slits. "Oh come now," it said. "You worship the burning chicken, are you telling me that this  _isn't_  the form humans have put upon me for millennia now? You swear to me enough."

She froze before she could drop the pokeball.  _"Arceus?!"_

"Got it in one. Congratulations." It grumbled as it laid down on her pillow – she was never touching that again- before continuing. "And you are Ayame of Ecruteak, otherwise known as Aevia Lucille, daughter of Nancy Lucille, some famous human who did famous things, am I right?"

"Uh..." Her whole body was starting to tremble. "Y-Yeah, that sounds about right." She was going to throw up. In front of god. "She-She's an actress."

"So a fake human doing fake things." God yawned. "Right, got it. Not all that interested in her. She's just another pile of molecules."

"So-So am I." Her door slid shut behind her, followed by her sinking to the floor. Ayame swallowed. Okay, there was a god. God was real and he was in her temporary room. What in the name of the Hall of Origin had she just walked into? "What the hell makes me so special? And why are you so small?"

"Uh..." The god paused. "Well… you know, that's a good question, that first one." It looked down. "Also because I'd break this entire region at my full magnificence. So I'm just using a compressed image. Keep up."

Ayame shook her head. That kid Ren must have poisoned her or something. Somehow. Through air. "And… and the first part?" Honestly, she was surprised she hadn't thrown up and fainted at this point. God was in her sleeping room.

It looked back at her. "Right, that. You happen to be at the right place at a shitty time. Nice job hitting a godless abomination with a pokedoll by the way, good stuff. I wish I could figure out those things. So uh, we were gonna send somebody else, but he's like, seven and stupid. And the other candidates won't answer my calls, and you're in the middle of the list. So uh, you want to save your mother, right? Save the world for me too? Thanks."

It took Ayame a few seconds to gather any sense out of that babble. Then she blurted out, "No."

If Arceus had an eyebrow, they would have raised it. "No?"

"No!" Ayame repeated, more forcefully this time. "Do I, do I look like someone who is good for world saving to you?"

"You are a middle choice," Arceus reminded her.

"For good reason, I bet!" she snapped back. "I got lucky with my life!"

"Barring the Steelix in an enclosed area-"

Her fists clenched. "One guy!"

"And your ninth birthday. And your mother dropping you as a baby like that burning chicken did on your tiny head, and your inability to-"

"Shut up!" Ayame shouted before her eyes widened in horror.  _Great, I'm totally going to be erased from existence because god knows my dirty laundry._

Arceus however, only smirked, a line of a mouth beginning to form on their face to do so. "And that is why I'm asking  _you_  and not the other one. You have got  _nerve._  We don't get many heroes with nerve these days. Only prepubescent derps with a terrible tendency towards justice and do-good whatnot. All that virtuous nonsense. Only gets you so far. I designed it, so I can't say I hate it. Still. Again. Only gets you so far. I mean,  _Red_. Red was an unfeeling monster when he started out with that pikachu of his. But so is Kanto. It's why we have Mewtwos being sold by the psychic pound from there."

Ayame decided to bypass all of that, thanking her stars that she was not disintegrated and ask instead, "There's someone else?" She seriously just wanted to find her mother and get to a semi-normal journey. She would happily foist off honor and glory and superpowered crap onto someone else if she could. Pokemon were enough of a superpower, thank you very much.

"Sure." Arceus hopped down. "There's always someone else, kid. I wouldn't even be asking you if you weren't in the area. There are a couple others, but this one would jump at the chance to like: be awesome. Since by their own definition they already are. Their name's Melia or something. I lose track of names without Mew. That ring a bell?"

Ayame paused for a moment, looked straight at god, and then let out the quietest f-bomb in the universe. That was mostly due to internalized fear of being knocked on the head by a parent.

Could she actually foist this random quest on some stranger she had never met before? Probably. This sounded like another kid though. She was already apparently missing. Was she that much of an awful person?

"The last time you took responsibility you lost most of your hearing, brat," Arceus said dryly. "You can always foist it. No one will know. Or care. Until they find out, but who needs 'em then?"

Ayame blinked. "Then why the hell did you ask me?"

"Cause you would have wanted me to ask." The oversized pony hopped from her bed. "Legend of Arceus and the Hoopa Wishes and all of that."

"The what?" She'd never heard of  _that one._  And she'd read all the mysticism of at least four regions.

"Right, right Kalos mysticism." He waved a hoof. "Get going. Your eevee's done being prodded at. And make yer choice brat. The universe ain't waiting forever."

Ayame was all too happy to leave, slamming the door behind her with the quietest 'nope' god had ever heard. They let out an exhale they didn't need.

"Was that really necessary?" asked a high-pitched chirpy voice, much to its owner's chagrin and to Arceus' amusement. For a creature who really ought to be taken seriously, Mew looked and sounded nothing like a great pinnacle of Creation.

Arceus only trotted across the room, stepping over random papers and the fallen sheet, just to see Mew twitch. Their eyes sparkled and the room began to right itself from when Arceus had landed in it with a little too much power. Brat. "It was," he finally said. "Simply because she won't take the out. She's thinking about it, mind you, but this is a deal that's irresistible to someone like her. How else will she be able to steel herself?"

"I thought the entire point of you helping her was to keep her life as ordinary as possible." Mew floated by the window, transforming lazily into a horribly disjointed Abra. Its legs dangled over the now neat sheets in the ugliest little twists, toes pointed inward for no reason at all. Its catlike ears didn't twitch. The transformed mew didn't even yawn. Arceus could never appreciate the transforming pokemon's sense of humor. "Not go and tell her to fix this humanmade mess."

"Was it?" Arceus lifted their head up and rolled back onto the rug, careless of position. They had spent a long time sleeping after all. If it hadn't been necessary to have a trip to the metaphysical bathroom so to speak, they likely would have continued to sleep, leaving the world under the loving care of their multitudes of powerful 'children'. Except for the so-named creation dragons. Those three were eternally grounded. "I suppose it was. Oh well. She'll involve herself in the end. That soul was notoriously nosy."

Not that they wanted her to, to be fair. It was just easier to pretend they didn't.

Mew grunted. "I'll take your word for it. She was perfectly normal whenever I passed through Ecruteak."

"Nosy is not a synonym for normal, last I processed a human language."

"Shut it."

"Don't tell God to shut it, you rebellious poof of fluff."

"Which you designed."

Arceus felt their eye twitch and vanished from the plane of existence. Mew shuddered with amusement, returning to their small, catlike form. Then, shutting off the light, they went to sink under the bed.

It wasn't like they had anything better to do aside from sleep themselves.

* * *

Ayame, having run full tilt away from the rooms, heard none of this. In fact, she hadn't even heard her name being called for her eevee. She would need to give them a name at some point. But that would be later when she could no longer hear the blood roaring in her ears and the sick, sick fear that was threatening to throw up all over the nice, freshly disinfected linoleum.

"Fuu-chan," she whispered to the empty hallway, fingers curled into tight fists, Isaiah's ball still shaking at her waist. "You promised me. You said I could still be  _normal_."

Normal was relative for a trainer, sure. A normal trainer was defined, by her family's standard idea of normalcy, as someone who could go across the region of their choice, and if they got into problems of this magnitude, it was either by accident or as a consequence of being in the wrong place at the wrong time beforehand. This felt  _nothing_  like an accident. This felt like god given destiny, no matter what God actually said, and if she couldn't get herself to convince Melia to take up the job of saving the region that she likely had the nationalistic pride for, then she would be taking the fate of who knew how many people into her hands. And be expected to save them.

Ayame jumped from her thoughts, looking at her fingers as energy sparked yellow and red and purple and green and blue and danced away from the safety of her palms to float harmlessly in the air. She made herself breathe. She breathed and breathed until the lights were no longer swimming over her head and her olive fingers were just toned olive and no longer dancing ablaze.

"I'm screwed," she whispered to no one in particular.

Ayame let out a shuddering breath and made herself continue walking.

_After all these years of not seeing my mother, after finally getting to meet her beyond a phone screen once in a blue moon, I have to save the world to even get to know her._

Ayame almost laughed. Almost.

She looked around the lobby as she entered from the sight, the realization hurtling into her like the boy across the room and his caterpie:  _I have no idea what this girl looks like._

Ayame almost threw up her hands and marched to the counter instead. Eevee and their ball were handed off to her in short order and Ayame resigned herself to being the walking observatory of the young shadow pokemon as they, by their own will, trotted up to her arm and onto her right shoulder. Had her mother been trying to heal this one herself? She had been planning to give her a gift, after all. Or had this been an attempt to keep it from the weirdo's hands?

"Thank you," she said to the poor receptionist, who was looking at her the same way Ayame had seen people do when they walked into Morty's gym and saw her there on the floor with a shuppet. "Do you know where Amanda is? I think she has something of mine."

Ayame was going to get the rest of those documents now. It would take her weeks, months to even think of translating them… probably. If she was lucky. She had better start now. "And, erm, where is the train station?"

The receptionist told her both and Ayame went after handing in her paperwork, looking down at her feet until she managed to make it outside. Not even Amanda could get her to look.

It was raining hard once again, skies a terrible, cloudy gray that headed to black at the edges. Looking up at it made her think of long days in the training field, stuck meditating under the cold waterfall of Mt. Mortar with a Kimono Girl's watchful eye nearby to make sure none of the group turned blue. They wouldn't even attempt to bring someone in even if you got sick. It used to drive her adoptive parents crazy when she would come home, drenched and sniffling with cold. Until recently.

Now nothing really left her cold for long.

The rain fell and as she closed her eyes, Ayame could almost imagine the raindrop sizzling on her outstretched palm.

Shaking herself from the image, Ayame set off towards the train station. It wouldn't do to set her clothes on fire.

As she walked, the nostalgic clang of a bell caught her ears. Ayame expanded Isaiah's ball, releasing the blue seal to splash happily into a puddle. He barked at her, and the pure sound brought a smile to Ayame's face.

"You didn't like that guy either, huh?"

Isaiah barked again and a little chime came out in response from a small bush.

Ayame swallowed and pulled out an unused pokeball from her bag. "Check if that's a pokemon, kay boy?"

Isaiah did this by eagerly letting out a jet of water from his nose. An oversized bell flew out of the bush and rolled onto the concrete.

Ayame's expression sobered into a thin, decisive frown. This she could do. She could catch a pokemon. She could raise them. She could battle with them. She could maybe save her mother.

She certainly could not save the world.

Ayame was so distracted that she didn't notice the rain falling and turning into steam on her skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back! I'm sorry for that delay, I was doing another round of edits due to some reviews (Thanks, wheels.) And now we have this one up to snuff too! Strider, I'm not sure I can actually please you. Ayame is going to avoid being Sue as much as possible, but she's going to have to survive things somehow. And, like it or not, there are some battles she's going to have to win. Also, Arceus. Let me know what you think of him, especially as we go on.
> 
> Ayame's Current Pokemon
> 
> Owned
> 
> Eevee (Shadow Type, unsafe) lvl 5, Moves: Shadow Rush, Growl, ?,?
> 
> Isaiah (popplio) Torrent, lvl 8 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Water Gun, Disarming Voice
> 
> Trill (chingling) Levitate, lvl 4 Moves: Wrap, Growl
> 
> Borrowing
> 
> Puff (jigglypuff) Friend Guard, lvl 46: Double-Edge, Hyper Voice, Gyro Ball, Toxic


	6. Lending a Helping Hand

Ayame did eventually notice this and immediately had to check that her clothes were not on fire. The rain had prevented that, lucky her, but she still needed a few minutes to catch her breath and not, well, cry. Eusine wasn't here to let her do it after all. She didn't need him to be either. She was strong. She had passed the tests of the kimono girls with flying colors. She didn't need to have the comfort of an adult who knew what they were doing.

… Though really, she wanted it more than she could put into words.

She kept walking, tossing the pokeball for her new pokemon up and down. A chingling. It was cute but it relied on happiness and nighttime for an evolution. That itself was fine but if these clouds didn't clear up, it would be hard to give them the moonlight they needed.

Not to mention they were fragile in a fight. She remembered a trainee who had one. It had been fine until the thing had gotten constantly dented.

Trill floated next to her ear, chiming softly. She glanced at him, watching him chime quite happily. "We're obvious like this," she told him. He only chirped again, settling for a moment on her head before floating away once more.

Chingling were weird.

She kept walking, stopping only to battle some stray trainers and when a loud scream came from a strange building that looked like it could have been an indoor shopping mall in the past. It had all the windows like the Goldenrod Department Store, except these were deliberately tinted so you couldn't see anything.

Still, the sounds that came from it were enough to convince Ayame to hightail it even more quickly towards the train station the kindly attendant had pointed her towards. Trill, well, let out a trill.

Ayame sighed when she slowed down. She needed friends. The eevee nearly fell from her shoulders again and Ayame felt her clothes attempt to give. "You need more self-preservation," she told it. Him. Her. She wasn't sure.

Eevee only blinked anyway. Well, she'd take that at least.

She dove under an alcove as another drizzle started up. There was a couple sitting out in the rain, sharing sandwiches under their umbrella. The girl on the other side of her boyfriend looked disgruntled but the teenage boy seemed so happy that he was with her Ayame could almost see it radiating off of him even from that distance.

Ayame couldn't help but smile. The sight of a couple trying to enjoy themselves in the rain was just so normal.  _Guess even Aevium has people who live normal lives. When this is over, I'll be one of them. Better take notes._ Ayame laughed to herself and took off at a run towards the train station. Inside, however, she was met with blue light, dull and barely enough to see the room at large. She shifted her fingers, warmth rushing to the tips. The hearing device crackled in her bag and Ayame winced. She supposed that would be a point to save up for.

Then a voice called, "Who's there," and a man looked up from underneath what appeared to be the service desk. His conductor hat was slightly askew, but he managed to smile at her and she rather thought he meant it. Quickly, Ayame shut her eyes, turning away from the warmth at her hands. She stepped forward, a nervous smile on her face.

"Hi," she mumbled, because she still wasn't feeling that talking thing anyway. She'd just talked to god, everything else was a much lower experience for the moment. "What happened?"

She'd figured going straight to the point was better because this looked like another delay and another thing to add to what was looking like a shitty week.

The man smiled up at her. "I'm not sure, honestly. There's been an electrical disruption. One of the civilians, Melia, went to go look into it in the sewers. Down there a lot of kids like to hang out and cause problems and we can't leave the place unmanned."

 _I'm not sure if this is cowardice, common sense, or one of Mom's movies._  Ayame thanked the man and left, hurrying back into the rain and no longer caring if it steamed over her skin.

She had no idea where the sewers were, so it was time to start looking everywhere and get some new teammates. A chingling and a popplio were hardly enough to survive this cutthroat region. She would have to train.

* * *

"Water Gun," Ayame mumbled, rubbing her eyes free of water. Isaiah blasted the small, sparkling bird and knocked it to the concrete. She winced appropriately and threw a ball to catch it. "Trinity," she murmured to the ball, once it stopped shaking.

Just as she picked it up, however, there was a very loud tweet, just over the sound of laughter from a distance away. Ayame looked up to see three men parking their motorcycles and creeping closer to the edge of a pier.

Ayame frowned, then crept down the railing. Normally like she'd said to Arceus (still messed up!), she had very little interest in saving people. Helping people was fine, being nice was okay, but trying to save people was just more harm than good in the long run. Cause then you got expected to because it was who you were. When you just helped people, it was under the umbrella of people are nice, therefore one more nice stranger.

That said however, she couldn't help but wonder why the hell there were grown men trying to pin down a starly. A  _starly_. Were they rare or something? Was it like some exotic pet thing?

Aevium was weird. Or poor. Or both.

Still, it was a starly. It was a harmless bird whatever were they doing ganging up on it like a bunch of cowards. But… she was a newbie trainer. There was no reasonable way she could just… beat three guys at once, even if she had trained her pokemon as she'd walked. She wouldn't be able to beat them without a lot of luck.

At the very least though, she could cause a ruckus. What was the worst that could happen? She drowned? Hah.

There was a soft cackle from the comfort of her hat and out floated what could have been confused for a gray rag with eyes.

"Calia," she murmured. "Ssh. You'll get me caught."

There was another cackle. " _That's the point isn't it, little darling? You want to get caught! Before you fall!"_

Calia was definitely not staying on her team for long if she could help it. Not until she was in a better place to train him emotionally, as you did with ghost pokemon. Ghosts fed off of feelings, f-Morty had said, all feelings. The dead had more than happiness and sadness to guide them. The more unstable your feelings were, the more the ghost fed and hungered and eventually possessed and overtook. And Ayame, from years in Ecruteak, years in agony of bleeding, sore feet and the familiar sensation of battle overwhelming adrenaline and years crouched in a gym in the dark watching challengers wander in the gloom and incense unknowing of the bones beneath their feet, knew she was not good for a shuppet. Not now.

What a shame. She really loved ghosts. Not as much as fairies (it was the only thing she and her mother had in common) but they were close!

" _I suppose, I suppose. If you kill them quietly, it's much easier to dump the bodies. Or the bones, when you're through. There's lots of water to drown them."_  Calia giggled and stuck out his tongue.

Ayame did not want to know what kind of child unintentionally birthed this shuppet. It was too smart and too crazy for its own good. "I'm not killing them."

" _I don't see why not."_

Ayame hissed through her teeth and dragged Calia back into his pokeball. That was it, she was  _boxing_  him. She didn't care how strange and wild and weird this region was. She didn't care if she might need him later, she was not good for this she was not ready for this, not a little bastard with a tendency to look inside her brain.

"Deli has a much better behaved shuppet than you," she told the ball, which didn't even react. Hmph!

Somehow, the men had not heard her talk to herself as she approached. But then they were muttering to themselves about the starly. The cheap starling that were a dime a dozen at the edges of Twinleaf and were imported to Kalos to give the fletchling something else to fight that had a chance. That maybe wasn't the case here. She couldn't be sure.

Still, she figured that she could take them. If they needed three people to wrangle a bird type, the most they probably had was a few poison types and maybe a couple of normal types and some bugs. (Not that those couldn't be dangerous, in the hands of decent trainers.) Things that were hanging around here for small kids to capture, youngin's to look for.

She could only hope, she hadn't taken the risk of wandering into East Gearen yet. There were people screaming about AP or something over there.

"You all ready?" she whispered. Isaiah nodded, managing the quietest of borks. Trinity only flapped her wings in acknowledgment. Aya nodded. "Okay, Trinity,  _dive!"_

Trinity took off and launched herself forward with a battle cry, embers flying from her gullet and setting the man's jacket to smoke. (Fletchling had the ability to smoke and make fire, but they were just plain old terrible at it. No flame organs.) He swore, loudly and danced about to throw it off. He waved his fists as Trinity dove and swirled between them. The embers didn't do much but the pecks and scratches did, blood oozing from open cuts. Ayame pushed herself up and forward and did what any self-respecting Tohjo trainer when they were outnumbered by thugs, had the element of surprise and an eevee on their arm, precariously perched.

She kicked him in the groin.

The squeak was worth it.

"Isaiah!" she called, jumping to the side.

Her popplio, by now poking his head out of the water, fired a jet of the grey looking stuff out and struck squeaker in the face. Just seeing it almost made Ayame shudder because she'd almost  _drowned in that._ But she didn't focus on the thought really. It was an absent-minded consideration as the bald one lunged for her neck and missed. The meaty fingers closed around a thin wrist -birdlike, her mind mocked, birdlike- and she was yanked up, handily. She didn't squirm. She merely stared.

"Lookit what we have here," the third croaked. "We got ourselves a little hero!"

Oh didn't that sum her up now."Let me go." She kept her voice level. This was a  _thug,_  not a monstrous pokemon. This didn't even bear being frightened of. Even in this environment (being damp was a mild problem but she could get over it really fast if it was necessary), this was still doable.

The three men laughed, guffawing sounds, one a pitch too high for his own liking she could tell. "Let me go, she says," sneered the second. "Good breeze'll knock you down, it will."

Ayame stared at him blankly, not amused. Trinity landed on Isaiah's head and waited. Isaiah was visibly shaking. Poor thing. If he wanted to leave, now was the time.

Then again, the murky polluted water would wreck that idea.

"Might." Her eyes flicked towards the starly flying to find space on poor Isaiah's face. Trill took to hovering instead, wings flapping against the rain. "You'll regret doing it though."

Her brain was not working. It had gone from the timid little thing she was supposed to be, that da and her cousin had warned her was better, safer, healthier, all the way to the tired, flat -earted, unforgiving thing her mother had tied into her in two years time.

That the Kimono Girls had turned her into all of her life.

Survival came first.

" _I'm not killing them."_

" _I don't see why not."_

She wasn't sure if this was a region where people typically roughed up kids who interfered with their illegal business, or they just killed them like they did in Sinnoh. She wasn't in the mood to find out.

"Eevee," she said. The feline's eyes narrowed into slits from her side. " _Sic 'em."_

The eevee leaped high and smashed her tiny skull, forehead first, into the head of the man holding Ayame. He swore and dropped her, prompting the man with the most horrible mohawk (She had pink hair, she knew hair dye when she saw it.) to throw a ball. Out came what in respects was a weasel with a haircut.

Irritation built up in Ayame's cheeks.

The one normal type they had, it was a gods -ack- accursed  _yungoos_.

The crossbreed of a patrat, a zangoose and likely some human being, those were rumored to have come out from Unovan and Alolan science experiments. Ayame was halfway certain they came from the depths of the flame circles of the reverse world. They ate like slaking except of the carnivorous variety. Did someone import them as a bloody joke?

And she had no fighting types. Not even a  _pikipek._

_Joy._

"Eat that mutt!" she heard as she caught herself and straightened up. It was so far away for a moment. Her hearing aids crackled none too kindly. They had to at least survive until she found her mother, there was no way she could afford new ones. Her family couldn't afford new ones.

"Rush!" And eevee rushed, smacking the wormy little creature on the side. Ayame whistled sharply, forcing herself to remember the way the sensation vibrated on her throat. "Back, back!"

Newbie mistake, she was lucky she hadn't said the full name of the attack. She was even luckier that it hadn't gotten worse.

"Water Gun!" she barked instead and held out her arm. The starly flitted to it in fright. "Dive!"

Isaiah and Trinity, bless them really, obeyed without a lick of hesitation, smashing into the yungoos and sending it skidding.

"Three on one!" bellowed the squeaking one. Ayame was already crouching, preparing to move again when she heard the faint sound of crackling, like thunder and lightning in a singular cocktail. "Cheap little brat!"

"Oh, it's fine when it's  _people_ , is it?" she said under her breath. What she called out louder was, "Finish him Isaiah! Trinity, get the others!"

They did as ordered and as Trinity dove, the yungoos' oversized jaws sank into her leg.

Trill screamed and shot an ember into the Pokemon's eye.

Ayame shot forward, starly sinking talons deep into her arm and going ignored. She caught the fletchling gently in both hands and whistled.

Isaiah barked in confusion but her eevee was off like a shot. She did  _not_  want to think about what that might mean. (Shadows are battle pokemon, warped like nothing else, just like you, Aya, you fool.)

Through the crackling of the hearing aids, she heard the yungoos  _scream in pain._

"Yungoos!"

The trainer had the decency to recall it, shame and rage flushing his face hot.

"You cheatin' thievin' brat," he hollered as his friends grouped around her, blocking the easy way out. "I'mma break all yer bones!"

Ayame inhaled, and the air tasted wet. She bent her knees, recalled her pokemon. Eevee took to her other shoulder. The bird on the first wouldn't stop trembling.

"Nowhere to run," the angry punk said, fists going up. Another ball.

 _Sure about that_? She bit down on her bottom lip, put one foot back-

Then the tiny dingy that had been bobbing about on the other side of the dock, exploded.

It wasn't the explosion of dynamite, but glass and wood and metal and plastic shards flew from the force of giant earth spikes from the depths of the water below.

 _Some twisted version of bulldoze,_ Ayame thought, analyzing quickly, eyeing each spike to see which could hold her weight against all odds.  _Who made it?_

"Well now," said a voice, soft and elegant and for some reason chilling the temperature. "This seems very uncouth of you gentlemen. Cornering this little dove. Just where did you think you were going?"

If Ayame tilted her head, she would almost think that was her cousin talking. But Delila was off in some other gym circuit. She had no idea Ayame was  _here_.

This was dashed by the sight of a floating woman in flowing pink robes and a book in her hands. Her eyes, a brown that veered awfully close to red, locked eyes with her. The woman smiled.

"Oh no," she said. "This simply won't do at all. You boys are in need of an education."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back again! I'm sorry it keeps going so dead. I have my motivation and it's... get to the Sheridan arc, where while I keep to the plot I also tend to keep... messing with the plot. At the moment I'm debating on upping the fic to M, but I have yet to decide. This fic is likely gonna get ugly. What do you all think?
> 
> Ayame's team is going to change rapidly throughout the fic. We will just see the active team members for now.
> 
> Also hi Karen.
> 
> Active Team
> 
> Eevee (Shadow Type, unsafe) lvl 5, Moves: Shadow Rush, Growl, Covet,?
> 
> Isaiah (popplio) Torrent, lvl 10 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Water Gun, Disarming Voice
> 
> Trill (chingling) Levitate, lvl 10 Moves: Wrap, Growl, Astonish, Confusion
> 
> Trinity (fletchling) Big Pecks, lvl 8 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack
> 
> Calia (shuppet) Cursed Body, lvl 7 Moves: Knock Off, Screech, Night Shade
> 
> Borrowing
> 
> Puff (jigglypuff) Friend Guard, lvl 46: Double-Edge, Hyper Voice, Gyro Ball, Toxic


	7. The Women in the Room

Magic, like always, made it all happen so quickly.

One moment, Ayame was surrounded by three giant goons and plotting how to get away from them without causing too much of a fuss and the next the men were stuck in place by the woman and her glowing hands.

"You poor pathetic souls," she proclaimed. "You three will learn at the Alvavors Ruins, as my servants. I propose that won't be a problem, will it now Charles?" She regarded the man with the mohawk as she spoke.

"My name is David!" he hollered as energy lifted up him and his motorcycle both.

"Goodbye Charles!" she sang as he flew away. The other two rose into the air, squirming and cursing. "You as well Roger! And who could forget sweet Peter?"

Once they were out of sight, however, the woman's strange smile dropped. She stepped closer to Ayame. Isaiah leaped from the water with an ungainly splash to stand in front of her. The woman paused and laughed.

"What a devoted creature," she said, regarding Ayame up and down. "And you, my dear, are a devoted little trainer. And so young, at that. Most people don't even try here until they're fifteen, you know?"

"I-I know," Ayame agreed. Because she did know. Her fathers had been insistent to warn her of that when Mum had proclaimed to be taking her there anyway. Certainly there were younger trainers, but they didn't get very far. They stayed close to home. Strong pokemon didn't mean much of anything, even with diverse move pools or good stats if they couldn't handle the same thing only better, or the trainer couldn't make a strategy. Most children simply could not do those things.

But then most children weren't drilled from the moment they rose to the moment they fell into bed.

"So that makes you quite different, doesn't it?" The woman stepped closer, smiling still. "Don't worry, I have no interest in hurting children." She paused, as if to think about it. "Unless they're  _brats_ , of course. But that makes sense, right? No one wants a brat with super powered monsters, yes?" She was close enough now to pat Ayame on the head, and did so without hesitation.

Ayame masterfully controlled her twitching eye and didn't answer. The brown eyes looking into hers were so close to red and they got even closer the more this woman was in her face.

The woman stepped back. "You aren't a brat at all. You understand silence. You're like a little dove, interested in peace." She looked at the destroyed boat. "I wonder if the person on this boat had a family." Just as quickly as she thought of it, she dismissed the thought. "I suppose it's irrelevant. Stone is a much better companion, in my opinion." She glanced back at Ayame once more. "Go on now, little dove. I'll be taking care of this, I suppose."

Ayame hesitated, because obeying too soon felt like it wasn't a particularly smart or courageous idea. "Who are you?"

The woman paused and then smiled again. "My name is Karen, little dove. Now fly away before it starts to storm."

This time, Ayame did go, gears whirling in her head.

No, she was nothing like Delila after all. Delila valued people.

This woman valued use.

Suddenly, her bag felt heavier on her shoulders. Like the woman was staring at it and knew without asking, what was buried far at the bottom of it.

Something even her mother hadn't been allowed to see.

* * *

After returning the starly and giving another thorough investigation of Oceana Pier (in which Ayame discovered people paid you to do errands for them and some idiot kept a jar of rare candies on their window sill, enough to make her have to fight a drastically underpowered pyroar with the help of a malnourished buizel), Ayame made a tentative venture to the eastern side of the city.

She went south first, mainly because if she was a trainer who had too much free time and there were areas to catch pokemon at, she would go and catch new ones.

To be fair, she still had no idea what Melia looked like. But she was sure she would find a trainer or… or something! Right? She… she had to be optimistic! It would be a problem if she wasn't. Everyone at home would worry if she called them in tears.

So she ventured into the grassy park. There were no humans in sight but in turn, she could hear the rustling of the grass and whispering sounds of pokemon.

There wasn't much to worry about in terms of having a team at all, at least. It wouldn't be a well-balanced one. Considering that one guy accidentally gave her a voltorb…

The taller grass reached just to her forehead, which made her curl her fists. She was gonna get taller someday! Only a little! But she was never gonna be shorter than  _grass_  again! Ever.

As Ayame nodded to herself in determination, she saw the blades rustle. Her fingers curled around the nearest pokeball as the rustling grew faster and faster until a sparkling kitten came tumbling out of the depths into some weeds. It was squeaking and screeching with dismay and ran past them to hide behind Ayame's leg.

Aya glanced at it and back at the hole it had made.  _An aipom_? It would be the most obvious. Monkey pokemon, of any species, loved to play some pranks and annoy people. Bullying a skitty was literally kicking a kitten, though, and surely aipom wouldn't go that far…?

She risked another glance at the skitty and saw thin scratches down one side, oozing little droplets of blood. Blades… wouldn't be a pawniard, those liked to be closer to the city than this and there were no bisharp. They used abandoned buildings for shelter. Honedge… honedge were ghosts and too overt, they wouldn't survive her. It might be… anything that could learn leaf blade. A treecko? A chikorita?

What came out after a few moments seemed like a bipedal praying mantis. Its red eyes blinked at her, then towards the skitty, then back at her. Ayame stared, running through that mental pokedex. Alolan. Definitely. So… what was that grass type? Lomantis? Fomantis?

Ayame released Trinity. At least it wasn't raining now. "Get them!"

Trinity zigzagged forward, smacking into the little grass type. It stumbled and waved its scythes around as it began to spin. Leafs burst from its body, glowing green and floating forward. "Spin!"

Trinity chirped, likely something along the lines of - I know what I'm doing, you know - before spinning upside down and knocking the leaves away, the tackle hitting the grass type right in the face. It stumbled back.

The skitty squeaked with glee until the off course leaves smacked it in its beady nose. It whined in pain. Aya hesitated a moment, then popped a pokeball over its head. It wasn't like she could use the eevee or jigglypuff, and the latter wasn't registered for her anyway. Worst came to worse, this would be the first pokemon she sent home. Skitty were powerful and had a wide movepool, but moon stones did not come easy or cheap. Still, seemed like a timid thing. Could do with some confidence, and protection for its sparkling fur. She'd never seen a shiny look like that.

Did Aevium have different  _shinies_  too? She was starting to wish that she had taken the ship to Tandor instead. They could have gotten tickets.

Not that being shiny was all that great. They were likely to get pokerus, yes, but pokerus was an unstable, unsteady virus that no one was quite sure how it worked and for all they knew it killed your pokemon faster.

Trinity's loud screeches caused Ayame to turn and see her bird smacking the -yep, pokedex says fomantis got it- with her beak, furious with it, somehow. "Trinity stop, you'll kill it!" She assumed they wouldn't but birds ate plants for snacks. she couldn't take the risk. Fomantis could grow into powerful, powerful attackers. Their biggest weakness was their speed, but a lurantis, if she remembered right, could tank quite a hit.

Trinity fell back and flapped back to her shoulder, chirping joy and delight. Ayame gently swatted the bird back off of her shoulder. The pokemon would be vulnerable if the ball didn't work. Also it was hard to aim with a bird on your back. She tossed another ball and it snagged around one of the fomantis' leaves and pulled it inside. Now Aya pulled out her pokedex, ready in case it broke out.

Really, she was surprised she'd even been  _given_ a pokedex. In Kanto and Johto, they had been considered  _honors_  on Tohjo, at least where she lived. Red visiting her hometown had been a big deal for a solid week. It had been the one time outside of her circle of fellow oddballs that people had wanted to talk to her.

_Did you see his pokedex?_

_Did he talk to you?_

_How did he battle?_

_I heard he was super quiet! Was it true?_

It had been none of their business, as far as she was concerned. It had been up to the Kimono Girls who had gone to meet him after his fight with the gym leader. It had been none of their business that Red was actually quite chatty and had been intensely interested in her ways with the ghosts and the way you stepped with respect. It would never be their business that she knew something about him no one else could know.

She had been able to tell them he was a phenomenal battler, and he and her father had fought a six-on-six, to a draw. She had told them how the fog and spirits roiled, whispering her ears even though she couldn't see them and how they had called him a shining star.

She had told them he owned a pokedex, and had a battered and solid presence. An honored soldier.

The pokeball in front of her clicked shut, though it sounded very unhappy about it. Aya picked up the ball, and went to heal the pokemon. So far, she had four. The first gym… well, she had no idea what it was, but she'd have to find out soon enough to get something to counter it with. Hopefully it wouldn't be too urgent…

* * *

Twenty minutes (and ramblings about an underground library) later, Ayame was wandering the city once more. Her skitty sniffed around her feet, hopping on stubby paws and swishing her pale tail. She seemed none too bothered by the fact that she was on the same team as her bully (and she would talk to him about that later if he tried that again) but that may have to do with the fact that Ayame fully intended to send the kitten to her home once Morty had confirmed the shuppet was safely in her cousin's hands.

Beggars couldn't be choosers yes, but there was no reason to make pokemon fight if they didn't have to. She would find her loyal friends, her good team and  _then_ , when she knew what she was good at and what she wasn't, she would train the pokemon who wanted to be trained. A good home was a start. And they might find someone they liked in the meantime.

The Kimono Girls had taught her well. There was no point in training a pokemon who didn't want to be trained, in catching one who didn't want to be caught. It was insulting to them, to their freedom, to nature. So she didn't. It was the reason she sometimes woke up and saw Suicune stealing her family's tamatos. Or Celebi passed over Mt Mortar, taking another trip to Blackthorn city with rawst and pinap in its arms.

A loud (correction: Screaming loud) guitar solo blared across the street. It was almost as bad as that cackling screeching in that weird train station building. Ayame paused to cover her ears, unsettling the Eevee to fall right into her hood. Eevee did not leave it, merely adjusted their weight to curl up in the warm area. Aya hesitated to pull up the hood with the eevee on it but decided against it. It probably wouldn't make hearing this racket any easier.

There were people looking on out of windows as she passed. They all looked positively disgusted by it, but somewhere in there seemed familiarity. Was this common? A holiday? A ritual? The only places she heard loud music like this were outside the game corner and that one gym in Unova with the punk rockstar. (She was actually super cool and had shown her how to play string instruments when they'd stopped by.) Was this one of her songs? It sounded like it.

"VERONICA!" The single word cut across the street and down the block and rattled windows. "TURN THAT DOWN!" At the sound of it, people shut their windows and doors, seemingly satisfied.

Skitty peeped at her foot. Ayame picked her up and shrugged. She had no idea. The kitten only mewed again.

If it was possible, an even louder voice countered. "HOLD ON! THE BEAT IS ABOUT TO DROP!"

"THE ONLY BEAT ABOUT TO DROP IS THIS SURROUND SOUND ONTO YOUR SKULL, YOUNG LADY!"

Ayame felt her hearing aids crackle with dismay. "Noise is reaching inappropriate levels. A lower setting is recommended," it chimed. Ayame did as she was told as the shouting match continued. There was a cracking sound again as a stereo crashed out of one of the few open windows of a house. It broke the upper part of the window, shattering and leaving only the disc unharmed in the sparking wreckage.

"MOM WHAT THE FUCK!"

Ayame winced, returning the now frantically scratching cat to her ball.

"YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHAT!" the other's pitch is higher, wilder somehow, than the girl who'd been playing the music. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A GYM LEADER VERONICA. AN EXAMPLE TO THESE YOUTH TO ASPIRE TO!"

"WASN'T IN THE JOB DESCRIPTION MA! I PAID FOR THAT STEREO!"

"TOO BAD! YOU CAN PAY FOR IT SOMEWHERE ELSE! I'VE HAD IT!"

And out the window next came a girl with purple hair, tumbling over and landing on a bush, cursing loudly as she fell. The loud crash and groan of pain almost made Ayame wince. At least it was only off of one floor. You could get up from that.

"That woman…" croaked the teen from the bush. "She's killed me for sure this time…"

Well she was definitely hurt. The bush had definitely cushioned the worst of it however. She was clearly talking out her ass, as Deli would put it.

"Hey kid…"

Ayame blinked as eevee wound its way up from the comfort of her hood. "Yes?"

"You saw her… that wretch… she's gone and killed me…"

Ayame wanted to laugh out loud. This was just like dad. He pretended like this all of the time. "Really?" She stepped closer, ever cautious. "You don't sound too bad to me."

"Just… I could be saved… with an oran berry…" She continued on like Ayame hadn't even spoken. "Please… just one… it could… it could give me a few more moments…"

Ayame, this time, had to giggle. The spasm of her arm was just too much. She doubled over, giggling as the other sat up on the bush.

"I'll have you know I worked  _hard_ on that spiel and then you go and  _laugh_  at it." The teenager crossed her arms and scowled, but there wasn't any heart in it.

Ayame, still managing to laugh, reached into her bag and tossed Venam a berry. "For your attempt," she said, wiping her eyes. "I needed that laugh…"

"That's an old ass thing to say, but thanks." Purple hair took a giant bite of the blue flesh. "Name's Venam. Not that Veronica shit mom yelled out the window.  _Venam._  Got me?"

"Gotcha," Ayame agreed well enough, catching eevee in her arms. Venam squinted at the sight of it.

"Something ain' right with that critter."

Ayame let out a sigh. "I know. I'm trying to figure out how to fix her. She got hurt really bad."

"Yikes." Venam wrinkled her nose like it was sympathy. "My friends might know. They're a hell of a lot smarter than me. Wanna go ask?"

"What about-" Ayame gestured to the house as Venam swung herself off the bush. The teen shrugged.

"Happens at least once a month." she went to the shattered radio and picked up the cd. Brushing it off, she slipped it carefully into a sleep left in her skirt. "I play my shit too loud, she boots me out, I bum people for food and then my paycheck rolls back in and I'm allowed to go home." She shrugged. "It's just her way of being worried about me I think."

"If that's what you call it." It might lead her to Melia so it couldn't hurt to check. "Sure! If you don't mind."

"Nah." Venam's eyes lit up with what was unmistakably mischief. "Say you're pretty small."

Ayame felt her cheeks puff out with annoyance. "I'm  _twelve_." She didn't mean to sound quite so silly about it but it was true. Even if she didn't feel like it sometimes.

Venam's smirk widened. "If you say so squirt."

"It's not squirt," Ayame said before she could stop herself, eyes narrowing. "It's  _Ayame._ You'd better remember it when I knock you into the dirt,  _Veronica._ "

Venam's face contorted a moment. Then she smirked. "I'll believe that when I see it, squirt."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Venam has arrived! It only took seven chapters! But welcome to her and welcome to the teeny start of many, many divergences. Pray for me all, please. As a note I am playing with the four move and the six pokemon party system over time. Ayame will not suddenly (nor ever) have twenty pokemon on her person. But there will be more than six, consistently. Look forward to the next chapter with more Venam, more Ren, and some Melia too, hopefully.
> 
> Active Team
> 
> Eevee (Shadow Type, unsafe) lvl 5, Moves: Shadow Rush, Growl, Covet,?
> 
> Isaiah (popplio) Torrent, lvl 13 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Water Gun, Disarming Voice
> 
> Stella (skitty) Wonder Skin, lvl 8 Moves: Fake Out, Tackle, Tail Whip, Sing
> 
> Trinity (fletchling) Big Pecks, lvl 11 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack, Peck
> 
> Red (fomantis) Contrary, lvl 9 Moves: Fury Cutter, Leafage
> 
> Cris (voltorb) Aftermath, lvl 9, Moves: Charge, Tackle, Sonicboom, Spark
> 
> Borrowing
> 
> Puff (jigglypuff) Friend Guard, lvl 46: Double-Edge, Hyper Voice, Gyro Ball, Toxic


	8. Something is Rotting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: disassociating, random minor characters, brutal beating of a garbodor.

"The sewers?" Ayame wrinkled her nose. "Gross! Castelia's are clean and I hated going in them." Which she wouldn't have needed to if they weren't an escape route.

"Yeah well, Castelia's for nerds and freshies. That's why that chick with the dragon blew 'em up."

"She did not blow them up." Aya had actually been in Castelia when that mess had gotten about. "Victini caused a fire, that's all."

"And how would  _you_ know?" Venam challenged with a cocky smirk.

Ayame tossed her hair back as haughtily as she could. (Deli would be proud.) "I was  _there_ , of course. Towards the the middle and end. My mother… she worked in Castelia for a time." For a moment, her eyes dimmed and the worry coursed up in her throat. Was she okay? What were they doing to her? They had been looking for her  _specifically?_  What for? "We ended up cutting her time there short and leaving after she stormed through Castelia." She had seen her face, barely older than Ayame herself had been, ten years old and bloodstained hands. Her face was sharp and scratched up at the time but her eyes had burned all the same as she strode into people twice her height and shoved forward. She remembered the girl, her chin barely reaching Ayame's eyes, looking down and pausing to pat her head.

"Tanis was there towards the end," she said. "That's what everyone else called her anyway. She didn't use her real name."

"Smart," Venam grunted. Then she paused. "Shite, hang on, I gotta grovel at my mum real fast. Wait here." And then Venam was gone, leaving Ayame standing there with eevee and her own thoughts.

 _That girl would hate it here,_  she thought, fiddling with Trinity's ball. This city alone was miserable to walk around, caught between rain and clouds like it would burst into tears at any moment. She'd think of having to fix this place and drown in trying.

Aya wondered if that tiny arceus had chosen that girl too. Or if that was humans, humans needing help and a savior like none other, a child because children had done it before?

Was Rina doing okay? She wondered about her too. She loved to stick her nose into things and get into trouble.

"Mind if I join you here for a second?"

Aya turned her head to see orange hair, a short black dress, a pokeball dangling from a purse. A tan woman looked down at her, bright eyed and thoughtful. "Sure," she said, leaning back a little and popping Isaiah out to splash in the drizzle. "I'm Aya," she added, because it was polite and it was wet and it'd be weird to make conversation without knowing each other's names. "Who are you?"

The woman smiled, that kindly adult one people used when they were tolerating the antics of the young and foolish. "My name is Karrina. I run the gang down below, we look after the town."

"Aren't there police for that?" The gang thing had sent a shudder down her spine, if only because all she thought of was Rockets hunting for rainbow and silver feathers and shaking down her seniors and other, horrible images in the back of her eyelids.

"There should be," Karrina said, and her soft voice aged a good ten years. "They should be, but the police have cleared out of East Gearen like the cowards they are. They prefer Grand Dream to the northwest, the safer districts you see. So it's left to the citizens and it's not always for the best, you understand."

"... I kinda do." This place was a little more like Ecruteak than she had thought it was. Except the police of Ecruteak were just the city and its ghosts, rather than likely a lot of youngsters and teenagers clinging to their strength in numbers.

"So I look after Gearen, best I can." The woman's back straightened and for a moment she looked even taller than before. "Me and mine. You know that feeling?"

She thought of the weight of a ball in her bag, buried in her treasures that no one could touch. "Yeah, a little."

"That's a shame." Karrina's expression went soft. "You shouldn't have to."

"Please don't pity me." Ayame swallowed thickly and looked away from Isaiah for a moment as he left her side and rolled about from where she had released him. "I don't need it." There were a lot of things she needed, but pity hardly was one of them.

Karrina's face flushed. "Oh, oh no no, that wasn't what I meant. Just… it's a sad world we live in where people have to."

"Oh." Ayame felt her cheeks warm in the rain. "Sorry… I just… I hear those things-"

_Poor creature._

_But she survived. She survived that ordeal and was blessed._

_The blessing needs to linger_

_May it pass onto us._

_Perhaps she's one of us after all. We must be certain._

"Or I used to hear them, when I was little," Ayame finished because it wasn't a lie. "So I just, I come to expect it. I'm really sorry about that."

Karrina laughed. "No worries. You're a good kid."

The flush reached Ayame's ears. "I'm  _twelve._ "

That only caused Karrina to laugh harder.

"Hey I'm baaacckkk!" Venam came skedaddling down the path, egg in both hands and pockets bulging. "I should have brought you with me, Aya. Mom heard I had a new friend and was all over it." She stopped to take a large gulp of air and then grinned wider at the sight of Karrina. "Hey, gang lady! How are the dusty tomes?"

Karrina rolled her eyes. "For the thousandth time, there aren't any dusty tomes. Ren just thinks I should go to the library." Ayame clapped her hands for Isaiah, rather than looking between the two of them as Karrina explained, "This girl and her friends got the runaround from some kid. They think there's a super secret library underneath the city. And trust me, if there is, it's long gone by now. Probably drowned or something." She waved a hand. "Anyway, I wouldn't even know where to start looking."

"She gets asked that a lot," Venam said. She was smirking, her brown eyes sparkling with mischief.

Aya nodded absently. Her eyes were on the green egg in Venam's arms. She poked one of the spots. "Bulbasaur egg?"

Venam's chest puffed out. "Yeah, got 'em last month. I can't carry them around much in this place. Rare little fella here."

Aya nodded and gave it a gentle stroke with her fingers. "We aren't allowed to breed them in Johto."

Venam grinned at her. "C'mon let's go a'fore my friends run off. Nice seein' you Kari~"

Karinna's face took on a long suffering look for the briefest of instants before she let them go. They were off to the sewers. Isaiah borking happily the whole way.

"I hope he doesn't try to swim down there," Venam said. "it's still not all fixed from when we switched to the West Gearen folks pulling the load. The water's better for the skrelp than the people."

Ayame perked. She'd never seen a  _skrelp_ up close before. They evolved into poisonous dragons that laid waste to the entirety of an old Kalos settlement that had become Vaniville, as far away from the water as they could safely dare. She had seen her mother nearly lose to a dragalge until her sylveon had psyshocked it so badly blood had started to come out of its ears after it knocked out four of her pokemon in a row.

"Aren't those dangerous?" she asked.

Venam shrugged. "Not to me, I train poison types. And these waters aren't as dangerous as the ones leading out of the city. The sewers in the west have a lot of work to do to stop that."

"Can't your pokemon purify the water?"

Venam shook her head. "That's a permit I don't got. Wish I did. Make some money thataway!" She squinted at the figure approaching what Ayame hoped was the sewer entrance. "Hoi! Ren, did you forget where you were going?"

 _Oh no._  Ayame resisted the urge to cringe behind Venam and stay there. Ren gave her such a bad vibe. She couldn't have to deal with him all the way in the sewers, would she?"

As they got closer, the dread in her stomach made her realize, god, she would. And she had to not punch him into the polluted water. Ayame didn't even know why she didn't like him. He grinned at Venam easily enough and nodded at her. Ayame swallowed and waved back.

 _He's just another kid, like me,_ she told herself, and trailed after them down stairs. The smell of grime and rancid water caused Aya to cough and consider heaving up her breakfast.

"You get used to it," Ren offered as Venam led the way, snatching looks at passerby youngsters and dragging others away from their yanking fishing lines (do you want a qwilfish in your brain? do ya?). Aya tried not to gag.

"I hope not," she mumbled.

He laughed and watched two of the abandoned youngsters turn on them, pokeballs in hand and murder in their eyes. "Wanna help get through here?"

Aya almost said no. But then she realized if she didn't help him, they would turn to heckle her. "Sounds good," she said after a moment. "If you let me catch a few things."

"You're one of those trainers who obsessively catches anything in front of you, aren't you?" he said with a beaming smile. Like it was a fond little tactic. And it was. Beginners did it all the time, because they often thought they could complete the impossible pokedex and didn't think about evolutions and trades.

Ayame controlled her mouth, much as she wanted to sink her teeth into his face and  _rip._  That was not a thing normal people did, definitely not. "I'm going against a poison gym soon," she said with a small smile instead. "On its home turf. I'm not taking any chances."

"If you say so," he said with a playful little smile. Ayame made her fingers uncurl and followed him into a fight.

And the next. Why did these people have damn  _pichu_? She was so jealous. You couldn't get wild pichu in Johto anymore, or much of anywhere but that random guy's backyard in Sinnoh and Melemele Island in Alola. They'd been hunted onto the endangered species list following the Volt Tackle craze. And Alola somehow had a  _psychic_ raichu. It made her entire body fizzle with excitement. They'd be so much fun to have on the team they were so fluffy and cute! Of course, if she managed to have one, she would do whatever it took to have a happy, surfing 'chu.

Still. She closed a ball around a gulpin and a woobat and they clicked in at once, a part of her growing team. The murkrow at Ren's shoulder cawed at her in distaste. Eevee stared at it in return, as if fully planning to bite off one of its wings. She stroked their fur.

"Cocorin's a bit of a jerk," Ren supplied, sending him off. "But he's great to stop stallers in their tracks.

"Where did you get one?" Ayame asked before she could stop herself.

Ren grinned. "My hometown had them all over the rafters. Someone I knew gave them to me because they couldn't control the insufferable bastard. They could smell the bullshit excuses. There are also some hanging around here sometimes, looking for new trainer lunch leftovers and their shiny change. Intelligent birds, these."

"They tend to flock to Ecruteak every festival," Ayame said with a smirk. "Convenient."

Cocorin chortled and gave another caw, taking off to peck a trubbish between the eyes.

Ayame sent out Trinity again, watching her dive bomb a poor rattata in the face. She almost wished she had found a pikipek. Those could learn rock smash.

The lights flickered overhead, out and then on again.

"Bite!" Shouted a little boy. His rattata leaped a good distance and then Trinity crossed the rest of it, knocking the rat nearly right into the water.

"Again!" Aya called and the fletchling obeyed, giving the other pokemon a good smack. A gulpin or something. Those things were terrifying. She'd heard of them eating the frame of houses before.

"God they're all trying to make a giant fuss today," Ren grunted, swapping out for his frogadier. Bonnie lunged and smacked the gulpin with a water pulse. It did not try to roll up again. Aya dropped her portion of the pocket change into her bag. "What did Venam do when I wasn't looking?"

Ayame didn't answer, but followed along all the same as they reached one of what looked like many white doors. She threw up in her mouth a little and forced it back down, the acrid pain bubbling on the back of it.

She did not need to keep looking at white doors thanks.

"Great," she heard as if through a tunnel. "The generator must have freaked out. Come on, we need to go reset it." Aya followed, pulling herself from the murk of screaming voices and pain twitching all up and down her arms and legs. She took a deeper breath than she had really needed to and her vision cleared up slowly. She could still see enough to swap out pokemon on the sparking computer and hurry after Ren through a few more volleys of trainers. She didn't remember giving commands for a good five minutes until Isaiah's frantic barks shot everything into crystal clarity.

"Disarming Voice," she called and that was when Isaiah's barks turned into screams.

Ren winced. "Did you  _have_  to do that in an enclosed space?"

 _Yes._  "Sorry," she said, shaking her head. "It worked at least."

"That it did," Ren agreed, watching a plusle and minun skitter away like their ears had been shattered. "thought I'd lost you for a second there."

"I'm fine," she told him, and her voice came out a little sharper than it was supposed to.

Ren shifted back a little and she didn't bother to feel sorry about it. Instead she slumped against the wall and watched him examine the three little generators. Well, no, they dwarfed her, but that didn't say much. She sprayed Isaiah with potion and gently rubbed his head.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled to the otter. "I just got lost in my head." He nosed her palm, and to her it felt like it didn't matter. Ayame picked him up and held him as tightly as she dared. He barked quietly, but did not leave her grip.

Then of course, once her heartbeat was back to a reasonable rate, someone screamed so loud they heard it a few hallways down. Ren bolted, yelling someone's name in panic. Memia? Melia? It was probably Melia, no one stopped talking about her now. Ayame returned Isaiah, who let out a grumbling sound, and pulled out her woobat.

"Ready Cheshire?"

Her bat squeaked. He wasn't a zubat but he was plenty strong for her needs right now which was… a psychic type that could fly. She'd heard Amanda say something about how the gym leaders had fields that would make their lives easier… mostly. She did not want to fight a poison type with too many land creatures.

She hurried out of the room and past all the defeated trainers until a smell worse than the sewer already was smacked her so hard she staggered in place. She did throw up in the water and it  _ached_. "What the hell…" she wheezed. Cheshire flapped beside her, as if trying to clear the air. With his nose, it was probably worse on him. "Let's get this over with," she managed to say, wiping her mouth with her wrist, and following the stench. "Gust," she shouted and Cheshite whipped a small wind into the doorway. It was much easier to look at now that it was open. There was a loud sound quite like a glurk that went muffled as she ran in.

The first thing she saw made her regret entering the room.

There was a large, sparkling garbodor, and it was leading a blond girl (who was also taller than her, joy) close to the greenish water. She clutched a small egg creature to her chest. Said togepi looked distinctly green.

"Sic'em!" Ayame called and Cheshire's nose glowed. Instead of psychic waves, however, out burst a large heart from his nose, smacking the giant pile of garbage right in the face. It gurgled, turning in slow lurches to face her. Acid spat out and struck Cheshire hard enough to make him drop and flap frantically up again.

Ayame squared her shoulders. "Again!"

Cheshire fired and it stumbled back, well, much as it could stumble without feet.

"Water Pulse!" Ayame heard from her left, the static in her ear thankfully not cracking too much. "Hurry, Bonnie!"

"I got one of 'em," Venam crowed from the side. "C'mon Melia, this'a'way!"

"R-Right…"

Ayame didnt' bother to see if she had moved. "Disorient it! Confusion!"

The room  _wavered_  for a moment, the waves spreading about and making everyone sway. Aya shut her eyes. "Charge up!" she ordered quickly. She was going to have to find a way to not use her voice to fight. She had practiced, sure, but that was in training where they knew already.

It would do for now, she supposed. Woobat's nose was glowing a steady pink, the bulk of the garbodor slowly moving towards it. Acid spat from its mouth. Cheshire dodged, body glowing pink now and spiraled up and up.

The acid flew towards her this time and Aya rolled, hearing the not comforting hiss of wall meeting poison. "Fire!"

The heart exploded on contact and the garbodor skid backwards and slammed into the wall. It slumped, acidic drool dripping onto the floor and causing it to begin to sizzle.

"Holy crap," Venam managed to say, coming to Ayame's side. "I gotta fight you when you can do that?"

Ayame grinned. "Some squirt I am, huh?"

Venam shoved her hat down into her head in reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Another chapter! I warn, these next few chapters are seriously battle heavy and I tried my best to make them more interesting than turn based tackle fights. Or at least the third one will be. Also I do not apologize for these fast levels and the like. This is how the game went for me without being absurd. Aka fighting the Litleo and boosting my popplio all the way to brionne. Whoops. Could not include that.  
> Active Team
> 
> Eevee (Shadow Type, unsafe) lvl 5, Moves: Shadow Rush, Growl, Covet,?
> 
> Isaiah (popplio) Torrent, lvl 15 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Aqua Jet, Disarming Voice
> 
> Cheshire (woobat) Unaware, lvl 15 Moves: Confusion, Assurance, Gust, Heart Stamp  
> Trinity (fletchling) Big Pecks, lvl 14 Moves: Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack, Peck
> 
> Red (fomantis) Contrary, lvl 13 Moves: Fury Cutter, Leafage, Razor Leaf
> 
> Cris (voltorb) Aftermath, lvl 13, Moves: Charge, Rollout, Sonicboom, Spark
> 
> Borrowing
> 
> Puff (jigglypuff) Friend Guard, lvl 46: Double-Edge, Hyper Voice, Gyro Ball, Toxic


End file.
